


Looking Backwards

by ToastyMagic



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 38,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToastyMagic/pseuds/ToastyMagic
Summary: This can't be possible, how did I get here? First I somehow find myself in Gravity Falls, Second the show is real and I'm back in 2012 with all of my knowledge of the events in the series, and third Stan has asked me to watch after his niece and nephew until I can get home. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. (Self Insert... if that wasn't obvious already).
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	1. Ginger Falls

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed please leave a review, it seriously encourages me to write more often and that means more frequent updates. It’s a win-win! Also, this is my first time using Ao3 so I'm sorry if something is messed up with the tags and whatnot.

“Someone is speaking”

‘Someone is quoting something’

_ Someone is thinking  _

Do you know that falling feeling that you have sometimes at the end of a nightmare? The one where you are just falling helplessly? That’s me right now. I was just casually walking home from just another day of Junior year in highschool when out of literally nowhere, everything started to turn white. I wanted to run back where I came, but the same thing was happening behind me as well. I was trapped and the rock music that was playing through my earbuds was not helping. Eventually, everything around me was white, including the ground I was standing on. I wanted to scream as I started falling when there was nothing left to stand on but nothing would escape my throat. 

I unstrapped my backpack, brought out in front of me and held it tight to my torso. I was going to hit something soon, I had to. I shut my eyes in anticipation, but nothing came. My eyes slowly opened and I realized that I was hurtling towards land and some trees. Finding my voice this time, I yelled as I hit the treeline, and even though it slowed my fall, I still hit the ground pretty hard. My body was cushioned by my backpack thankfully, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt. I rolled onto my back off the flattened bag with a loud grunt of pain. I winced and shut my eyes and tried to breathe and comprehend what had just happened. 

After a few seconds, blood started to trickle out of my nose forcing my eyes open. I wiped the back of my hand under my nose to see if it was actually blood or not, it was. My gaze lifted from my bloody hand and I almost passed out at what I saw. In front of me there was a building that I loved and cherished. The building was a shack, and on the side of the triangle roof were red painted wood letters with a yellow backdrop making the letters pop out. Two words were proudly displayed with those letters, and they read: ‘MYSTERY SHACK’

My jaw dropped, this was not possible. Gravity Falls is a  _ cartoon _ , it's not real, it can’t be real! I slowly began to stand on my feet, completely disregarding my bag, fallen out earbuds and my current nosebleed and walked up to what I believed was the gift shop entrance. Shakily grabbing the wooden handrail, I made my way up the rickety steps and to the door, stumbling a little when I had to let go of the rail to get to the door. Sloppily wiping the blood off my face one final time, I took a big breath and pushed open the door. I almost fell out of surprise right there when my eyes laid upon the cashier of the establishment, she had red hair just like me and I knew that it must be Wendy Corduroy.

She had her feet propped up on the counter top and was reading a magazine with a bored expression. “Welcome to the Mystery Shack, or whatever.” She said in a bored tone when she heard the bell ring as the door opened. I was completely appalled, she looked real. The tangles in her hair were noticeable and so were her sporadic freckles. The green flannel she was wearing hung loosely to her torso, her boots were all muddy and probably making a mess on the table and on top of it all was her lumberjack hat. She looked like a real person, and if that isn't scary enough, her voice sounded  _ identical _ to the one she has in the show.

I tried to take a step further into the room, but stumbled forward knocking down a metal stand of postcards while trying to regain my lost balance. My eyes flew over to Wendy as she said, “Watch it buddy! Stuff here is expensive ya know!” When she said this the magazine was still blocking her view, so when she heard no reply from me, she lowered the reading material and shock spread across her face. “Oh my gosh are you okay?” Even when she talked she looked real, her mouth matched up perfectly to the words coming out of it. 

She brought her feet to the ground and ran over to me, where I was clinging onto a shelf for support so I could stand.  _ So she looks real, big deal! That doesn’t mean she IS real. I have to be hallucinating.  _ When she reached me, she put her hand on my shoulder, which made my eyes widen.  _ I’m not hallucinating! I’m not hallucinating!  _ My arms went limp from physical exhaustion and from the overwhelming fact that I’m actually in Gravity Falls. I collapsed on the floor and the last thing that I remembered was Wendy giving a yelp at my loss of consciousness. 

(Time skip)

A few hours later I woke up. I had a gauze pad under my nose so the bleeding stopped, my arms had damp cool towels on them and below that I had a rather large ice pack on my stomach. Wincing at the pain, I tried to sit up so I could examine my legs. They were in the same condition my arms were in, covered with wet rags in different places. Slowly, I brought my body back down into a resting position, but I closed my eyes and began to cough. I must have grabbed someone’s attention because I heard footsteps approaching me. Barely opening my eyes, I tried to identify who the footsteps belonged to, but all I saw was a fuzzy outline of a man coming closer. 

Deciding to risk it, I allowed my eyes to fully open and gaze upon who was in my presence. I freaked out... to say the least. Standing near my legs was the man, he wore a dark suit with a white undershirt. His face supported rectangle-like glasses and above one of the frames was a flipped up eyepatch. On top of it all was a red fez with a golden symbol in the center. I jumped back closer to the arm of the sofa I was laying on in complete surprise and the man’s serious stature quickly became alarmed by my reaction. 

His voice was gruff and deep, but friendly, indicating he had spoken to many strangers in his time. “Whoa, easy there kid. By the looks of it you’ve been through a lot, take it easy.”  _ Take it easy!? How could I take it easy when a real life Stanley Pines was standing above me? _ My heart was beating so fast that I heard it in my ears.  _ First Wendy now Stan? Is there anyone not here? What, is Soos here too? _

As if on cue, a lumbering large man walked up to Stan. “Mr Pines, all the tourists have left. I had to use the hose on a few because of the cut tour, but they all ran out pretty quick. Hey, the mystery dude is up,” He said and I could all help but stare at him. He looked real too, albeit a little more recognizable than the other two, but real nonetheless. He wore his question mark shirt over his large stomach, cargo shorts were covering his legs and on his head he had a dark baseball cap.

Stan rolled his eyes at the handyman, “Yup, the kid just came around now.” My gaze quickly switched to the old man’s face, even the nose was spot on! “What’s your name,” Stan asked, resuming his serious expression that he held before. I didn’t respond, I couldn’t respond. This was all so much to take in. I loved Gravity Falls, yeah, but being here literally out of nowhere was too crazy for me. I often had daydreamed being here and now that I am officially in this backwoods town, it didn’t feel as amazing as I thought it would. It mostly just hurt, not just physically too. What about my friends and my family? Was I the only one that got “flashed?” Were there hundreds of people crawling and stumbling around like I had? 

Stan snapped his fingers grabbing my attention to him, “Kid, I closed shop just so that we could properly fix you up. The least you could do is tell us who you are.” His tone was straightforward, impatient, a little rude and rightfully so. He had no idea who I was and how I managed to get to his doorstep, then again, I didn’t know either. 

However I did know my name, but they can’t find it out because then they’ll know if I’m from another dimension. He’ll try to find my parents and then he’ll realize that they don’t exist, probably. I just couldn’t risk it.

I sat up with a small grunt and looked right at Stan, “My name is Matt. Matt…” It needed to seem like I had some form of memory loss so they wouldn’t question for my last name, and to make it look more convincing I brought my left hand to my forehead. “I can’t quite remember,” As I spoke my hand slid down and over my face. Stan is a professional con man, and I’m willing to wager that he can detect small facial cues of lies, so I hid my face.

When I brought my hand back down to my side I tried to find an emotion on his face, I couldn’t find a single one. “What year is it?” Stan asked nonchalantly.

I squinted slightly at the odd question, “What?” 

“You heard me. What year is it?” He asked again in an irritated tone. 

“Um, 2020?” I asked hopefully.

Stan scoffed at my answer, “Kid you must have hit your head on something really hard. It’s 2012, the beginning of summer meaning…” He seemed lost in thought as his eyes drifted away from mine. And then his face suddenly lit up and he shouted, “My niece and nephew are coming here tomorrow!” He slapped his forehead. “I completely forgot! I have to set up their bedroom!” He quickly walked out of the room and up the stairwell nearby. His footsteps stopped and I heard him come back down, prompting me to turn my body slightly to look at him. His head and shoulders were peeking out from behind the wall as he said, “This doesn’t mean that our conversation is over.” And with that, he walked right back up the stairs, signaling that I could lay back down once more. 

“So what happened to you anyway, dude?” Soos asked, which startled me a little. I completely forgot he was in the room.

“Oh I thought you left,” I responded. “Man, for a big guy you can blend in pretty well.” He beamed at the comment, which wasn’t a compliment, but that’s Soos for ya. I didn’t like lying to someone like Soos, but I knew that he had a big mouth so I had to. “I don’t really know how I wound up here, man. I just kinda woke up right on the edge of the woods I guess, with all of these injuries too.” I glanced at my towel covered limbs and back to him. “I never got your name.”  _ God, playing dumb really hurts.  _

“Oh, my Name’s Soos!” He said with a small tip of his cap. “And that old guy was Mr. Stanford Pines, my boss.” The way that Soos stated Stan’s name really showed how much he cared for him.  _ He really does view him as a father.  _

“He’s not, like, going to kick me out right?” I genuinely asked, hiding my concern with a chuckle that made me cough a little. I really didn’t know if he would let me stay or not. 

Soos raised his eyebrows slightly with his response, “No, of course not. Sure Mr. Pines looks kind of scary and mean, but he wouldn’t kick you out of the shack.” He looked off to the side, “I hope.” I ignored the last part and gave a small smile and tried to change the subject. 

“What about that redhead manning the cash register, the one I probably scared half to death,” I asked with a small chuckle that hurt a little.

Instantly, and I mean instantly Soos’s face became excited again as he responded, “Oh that’s Wendy. She’s the only girl in a family full of lumberjacks, and she’s super cool.” Despite Soos’s grand smile while talking about his friend, I couldn’t help but frown slightly.  _ So that basically confirms that her mom is gone. Poor Wendy.  _ I heard the front door open, shaking me from my thoughts. In walked the female lumberjack, she was texting someone on her phone and had a bag slung over her shoulder.

She looked up from her phone and looked at Soos and I while putting her device away, “My fellow ginger has awoken, how ya feeling?” 

I smiled at the comment.  _ She really was as cool the show made her out to be.  _ “To be honest, everything hurts. I should be able to get around tomorrow much easier. Sorry for freaking you out earlier.”

She waved a hand through the air in response, “Pssh, I’ve seen more freaky things. One time I caught this kid trying to steal my moisturizer.” I laughed in response.  _ If she thought Gideon doing that was weird, then this summer is surely going to rock her.  _

After my laughter subsided I asked, “What’s in the bag?”

“This stuff is for you, man,” She said, bringing the bag out infront of her.

I raised an eyebrow, “Wait, for me?” 

“Yeah, dude,” Soos said while walking to a nearby table and grabbing a chair. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your clothes are pretty jacked up.” He brought the chair a few feet away from the couch and sat down. “Wendy and I put some money together to buy you this stuff.” He extended his hands out for the bag and Wendy placed it in his grasp and Soos sorted through it. “We got you some extra clothes, a hair brush, toothbrush and toothpaste and some shampoo. Stan’s got that old man hair wash, do not want to put you through that.” He said with a chuckle.

“You guys didn’t need to do that, I have an extra set of clothes in...my...backpack…” I trailed off.

“Ah so that was your bag outside, I’ll go get it for you.” Wendy said politely, but I didn’t respond. My backpack had my first and _ last  _ name imprinted on it. She couldn’t see that, if she did then I was screwed. I was about to call out and say that it wasn’t necessary, that I'd get it in the morning, but she was already gone.  _ I hope she is as carefree as I think she is.  _

A few seconds later, Wendy came back in the shack and closed the door. She had my bag slung over one of her shoulders and had something small in her free hand. “Nice color choice with the bag, red like the fiery hair,” She nodded in approval as she put the bag down beside the couch, allowing me to exhale a breath I didn’t know I was keeping in. “Never seen these before though. Are these yours too?” 

She held out my wireless earbuds close to me so I could see them. Since this was 2012 and not 2020, those earbuds were not invented yet. I didn’t really know how to explain what they were so I just nodded in response, she didn’t ask any further questions and put them in the mesh pocket on the side of my bag. 

The room fell into silence afterward, and a question entered my mind that I somewhat knew the answer to. “I can’t help but ask,” I started, grabbing Soos and Wendy’s attention. “Why am I in some shack and not a hospital right now?” 

Wendy and Soos exchanged a small glance and the lumberjack turned back to me with a somewhat serious face, “You seem like a chill guy, so I’ll tell you this, but you cannot tell anyone else.” I nodded in response which prompted her to continue. “Okay uh, Stan isn’t exactly the most clean guy out there, so if the police or an ambulance came here with you looking like this, he might get into some trouble.”  _ Yup, that’s pretty much the answer I was expecting _ . 

“Well, as long as he allows me to stay here for a few days, then we’re straight,” I said with a small smirk. 

“Yeah we better be straight, kid,” Stan said walking into the room surprising me how quiet his descent down the stairs was. “I’ll let you stay the night, but tomorrow I’m bringing you back home to your folks, alright? Do you live in Gravity Falls?” Stan asked and I put on the best innocent act that I had ever put on. I knew full well that Gravity Falls was in Oregon, which meant that I was on the other side of the country from my hometown. 

“I don’t live in this town, Mr. Pines,” I said quickly. “I don’t quite remember where I live, but I can tell you right now that it is not Gravity Falls.” Stan let out a sigh. “I mean, what kind of name is ‘Gravity Falls?’”  _ Well... that hurt a lot to say. _

“At least you remember how to breathe,” Stan muttered under his breath and was silent for a few seconds, but then spoke up. “Tell you what, until a missing person’s report matching your description comes out, you get to stay here. Now, that could take a while to get out to the public, so if you’re okay with staying in a shack with an old man and a pair of 12 year old twins, you can.” I nodded.  _ Man, I’m going to be here for a while.  _ “That doesn’t mean that you won’t have responsibilities, you are going to watch over my niece and nephew whenever I can’t. If they are working in the shack, then so are you. And if they decide to go out into town, then you are going too.” I honestly couldn’t tell if this was good or bad. On one hand, I have an opportunity to spend the foreseeable future with the Pines family and go on all of their adventures, but on the other hand, my family might have no idea where I am right now and could be worried sick, so I should try and get home as soon as possible. Then again, I didn’t know how to do that, so my best bet was staying here until I can figure that out. 

“I’ll do it, Mr.Pines,” I responded and out of the corner of my eyes I saw Soos and Wendy start to smile at my choice.

“Alright then,” Stan concluded and was about to walk away, but then halted his movement. “But if you remember anything about your background, you tell me immediately. I don’t want people thinking that I kidnapped a teenager. Got it?” 

I nodded once again, “Got it, Mr. Pines.”

“And one more thing, if you’re going to be staying here, just call me Stan.” 

“That makes things a lot easier,” I acknowledged. _Thank god! That_ ** _really_** _does_ _make things easier! I’m surprised I haven’t called him grunkle yet._

“You’re going to sleep down here for tonight, I don’t want you falling down the steps. Tomorrow I’ll show you around, so don’t go snooping where your nose doesn’t belong,” Stan pointed a finger at me and I smiled. Too bad I already know everything that he is trying to hide. “As for you two,” Stan turned to his employees. “You can go home now, you’ve done your part and it’s getting late.” Soos stood up and brought his chair back to where he got it while Wendy turned to me and gave a thumbs up. 

“I’ll see you around, Matt,” She said making my blood run cold. I never told her my name.

“See ya later, dude!” Soos exclaimed as he followed his co-worker out the door. It took all that I had in me to put on a smile for him and it disappeared once he walked out the door. 

Stan turned to me once they were gone, reaching for the light switch near the door, “Welcome to Gravity Falls, Kid.” And with that, the room plunged into darkness and I heard the man walk down the hall to his room. At least Stan didn’t realize that my bag had my name on it, but one thing’s for sure, I have to talk to Wendy and make her promise that she won’t tell anyone my last name.

I adjusted my head so I was looking to the ceiling and closed my eyes as I said to myself, “At least at home it’s a Friday and not a school night.”

  
  



	2. Things Could Be Worse

When I woke up, irritation was the first thing on my mind. I raised my head up to look at my arms and I quickly noticed, despite the dark lighting, that my limbs had white towels on them. Wondering how they got there, I removed them but not without a jolt of unexpected pain. I brought my hand to my face and felt a multitude of cuts embedded into my skin. “Okay, what happened last night,” I said to myself sitting up now. Craning my head to the left, I looked around the room and it looked so familiar. Then it clicked and just like a flood, everything that happened yesterday came back to me. 

“As much as I love Gravity Falls, I was kinda hoping that was a very vivid dream.” I reached my hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone, surprised at the fact that the screen was not absolutely shattered from yesterday’s events. Turning my device on, I quickly noted that the time was 6:58am which meant that Stan would start to get ready for his tourists. And probably rudely make me get up for work as well, despite my injuries.

When I unlocked my phone I sighed in disappointment at the fact that there was no service,  _ I might have to switch to GRAVIT&T in order to use my phone, I still can’t believe that’s an actual thing.  _ Putting my phone away in dissatisfaction, I brought my feet over and to the ground with yet another wince of pain. I needed to hype myself up in order to get the courage to stand up, and with a few deep short breaths, I got to my feet. Bad idea, the quick added weight to my legs was too unbearable and I let myself fall back onto the couch. “Ow, I should have thought that through more.”

Then out of nowhere the lights were turned on, prompting me to shield my eyes. “Rise and shine, kid,” I heard Stan say.

I rubbed my eyes and slowly adjusted to the new lighting. “First, you don’t tell me where the bathroom is. Then, you tell me to go to sleep without feeding me and now you turn on the lights in a dark room where you know I’m sleeping,” I stated angrily to which Stan just shrugged. “If you're going to be a caretaker, you may want to work on the  _ care _ part.”

“Stan turned and walked out of the room while saying, “The only work that’s going to be happening starts when the shack opens for business.” I rolled my eyes at his response, he is definitely Stanley Pines. “Get your butt over here.” 

I gave a groan in reply and slowly stood up on my feet with minimal pain and lightly limped over to the room Stan had walked into. I stopped in the door frame and leaned there to take some weight off my legs. The room before me was the kitchen and it was just as underwhelming as the one in the show, guess that’s what happens when a man lives by himself for thirty years.

“As you can tell, this is the grub room. If you eat anything that has my name on it, I’ll put you right back into those woods,” Stan said while pointing out the window. 

“Understood,” I rolled my eyes once again. “By the way, when are those kids coming today.”

“They’ll be here around two in the afternoon, it’s about a four and a half hour drive.” Stan said in response. “You already want to ditch me, huh.” I gave a shrug that had the same energy as the one he had given me moments ago. I savored the scowl that he gave me. Stan walked past me and my smirk back out of the room and stood impatiently at the foot of the stairs. He gestured past him and down the hallway beside said stairs. I walked past him and I noticed that I was actually a few inches taller than him.  _ Wasn’t expecting that. _ The first door on the right led into the parlor, the place where Wax Stan’s funeral was held, or I guess  _ will  _ be held. The next door was Stan’s room, he made it very clear not to go in there, oh well, no fully clothed women for me. The one after that was his office, I wasn’t really supposed to go in there either. The last door led to the bathroom. It was inconvenient for the people that lived in the shack, but convenient for the tourists because the museum was placed right at the end of the hall down a small staircase.

“You should probably go take a shower, I don’t want anyone thinking that one of my attractions came to life,” Stan said to me after we got back to the living room. 

“Oh yeah good thinking Mr. Pines,” I replied sarcastically. “Wouldn’t want to deduct the amount of scams you pull today.” Stan scoffed and my tone became serious. “How does anyone believe that stuff?”

“Beats me kid, but seriously though, wash up and then go eat something,” Stan said as he walked into the gift shop. I grabbed the bag that Wendy and Soos had given me and walked back down the hall to the bathroom. I got a good look at my face and the rest of my body, it was as bad as it felt. There were indeed multiple minor scratches on my face so shaving was going to be a problem.  _ I need to go out and buy a razor at some point. _ On the back of my left wrist I had a big bruise that was turning black and blue and on my right forearm there was a similar bruise. The shirt I was wearing was completely totaled, it had holes on the sides and upper body, probably from the branches that I whipped past yesterday. I took off the wrecked article of clothing and turned to examine my back, nothing out of the ordinary which was a huge relief. 

My legs had cuts and scratches up and down, but perhaps the worst were my knees. They had marks covering the top halves of them and hurt to the touch. Believe me, it was a joy to find that information out. To top everything off, I had dirt and dried blood everywhere. I grabbed my new shampoo out of the bag while making sure that there was an actual towel in the room along with body wash, which, to my delight, there were. I was in the shower for about twenty minutes, mostly because the shower wasn’t mine and I had no idea how to use it, but being extremely dirty had affected the time as well.

Once I got out I felt much better and after I dried myself off I took a look at what clothes were given to me. I first pulled out a red flannel, definitely Wendy’s idea, and put it to the side. Next there was a plain black t-shirt that I think would look good with the flannel, then again I’m a guy with no fashion sense and could never quite get a proper set of clothes. I pulled out another T-shirt and when I opened it I was happy to see that it had a giant question mark on it.  _ Okay, never getting rid of this.  _ I put that to the side along with the others and after that I pulled out a maroon sweatshirt that looked really comfortable. At the bottom of the bag there were a pair of jeans, definitely Wendy again, and a pair of regular grey pants, underneath that there were a few pairs of socks and underwear. 

I put on what I’m pretty sure Soos had given me, mostly because it covered my cuts and bruises. Then I brushed my teeth and then my hair. I used the brush to part my hair to the right and smother down any loose strands, there were a lot of those. After I was done, I didn’t know where to put my toiletries ao I just kept them to the right side of the sink on the counter. I walked out feeling refreshed, sweatshirt in one hand and bag in the other that had  _ all  _ of my clothes. I’m not about to be a slob in the Mystery Shack, I don’t know what could happen to me if I was. 

I made my way back to where I had my backpack and put my dirty clothes into the front pouch after I took out a thermos of water that was in there. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I laid my eyes upon it, I hadn’t had anything to drink since lunch yesterday. I chugged the whole thing in about seven seconds. 

“Jeez kid, relax, that water isn’t going anywhere,” Stan said as he walked into the room, I gave no reply, I just put the flask back into my bag. “Let me show you where you’ll be sleeping.” I grabbed the two bags, making sure that an article of clothing was sticking out of the pocket and covering my name. He led me up the stairs and into a room that had two twin size beds on either side of it and a big nightstand in the middle of them. 

...Wait a minute. “I’m staying in the same room as your niece and nephew?” I asked very quickly.

Stan shrugged, that stupid shrug, “I don’t see why not, nor the problem.”

“Maybe the fact that I’m a teenager and the fact that they're twelve?” I fired back. 

Stan gave a small laugh in response, the first time that I heard him laugh since I got here. “Look kid, If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t a lot of places for you to stay. It’s either this room or the museum, and you’ll actually be an attraction if you stay there.” Then I heard him start to say under his breath, “Come to think of it…” Uh-uh, I’m not letting him humor the idea of people throwing money at me. 

“Fine, I’ll stay here, but where am I going to sleep,” I asked.  _ If he says on the floor I’m gonna lose it.  _

“Oh yeah, help me move the spare mattress in here,” Stan replied and he walked past me. The mattress was just outside the room, leaning on the wall. “I know you’re hurt so let’s do this nice and slow,” He said, which kind of surprised me, maybe he did care. “Now since I’m an old man, I get the side with the better grip.” And there it was. 

We got the bed, well it wasn’t even a bed, just a mattress, into the room pretty easily and I put my bags beside it. “Alright kid get situated, and then come down and eat something like I said earlier,” Stan said. “Sheets and blankets are in there.” He pointed to the closest in the front left corner of the room and then walked out. Didn’t even close the door.

I got right to work by making my mattress,  _ that sounds really weird.  _ Next I needed a place to put my bag and new clothes, so I opened the closet where I got the sheets and then I remembered something. The invisible wizard in this closet was an actual thing according to Ford’s third journal, so I just closed the door slowly and backed away. I expected something to jump out at me, but nothing happened making me sigh in relief and I looked for another spot. Under the beds? No, there would be glitter and pen ink all over my clothes in a matter of days if I put them there. My gaze hit the shelves, no way either of the twins can reach up there, or really anything for that matter so that’s where they went. Now the only problem was my bag.

There didn’t seem to be anything sharp in the attic, maybe I could grab a knife from the kitchen, I was hungry anyway. So, with that in mind, I made my way down the stairs extra carefully and hoped that my legs wouldn’t give out. After the successful descent, I walked straight into the kitchen and found Stan sitting by himself at the table by the window reading the morning paper, or trying to avoid eye contact, I’m not really sure.

“You like cereal, kid,” He asked, looking at me now. I nodded in reply. “It’s in the cabinet behind yah, bowls too.” I grabbed a bowl and next to it I saw some off brand corn flakes, beggars can’t be choosers. Placing the bowl on the table, I took the cereal off the shelf and took a guess at where the spoons, and hopefully knives, are. My first guess was right, they were in the drawer right underneath the cabinet. I looked back at Stan to make sure he wasn’t looking at me, his face was hidden by the paper, and I quickly pocketed a knife.  _ This is most certainly a safety hazard.  _ I then pulled out a spoon and then closed the drawer, I grabbed the box cereal as well. I was a little hesitant to grab the milk out of the fridge, but my hunger won over my concern.

Now sitting at the table, I poured the cereal and milk into the bowl and asked, “What are the kids’ names anyway?”  _ Yeah... still totally hurts to ask questions like that. _

“Dylan and Rowena.”  _ And responses like that hurt even more.  _ “Wait, no no, Dipper and Mabel.” Yeah, he really needs to work on the care part. What would their reaction be when they find out that they have to share a room with me. I was very excited to see the twins, but would they think highly of me like I think highly of them? Mabel I wasn’t too worried about, but Dipper? Gaining his trust, even his friendship, would be a task and a half. And what about after I, hopefully, gain his trust, what would I tell him about who I really am? There will most likely be slip ups from me down the line, that I am sure of, and there is no way that his curious and paranoid personality won’t pick up on them. My best bet was going along with what happened in the show, even if my presence alters it a bit. At least the time I spend here will be exhilarating. 

“I’m really sorry about all this Stan,” I said with a sigh. He brought down the paper that he was “reading” and looked at me. “I don’t want to be a problem to you or your business and I can’t really do much to repay you because I’m only a sixteen year old kid that can’t even remember my full name. But even with that in account, you’ve taken exceptional care of me, so thank you.” Stan studied my face with slightly squinted eyes, as if looking for something.

“Are you sure that you’re a teenager,” he said at last. “Kids never show gratitude these days.” He looked away for a second. “That’s why I was hesitant to hire Wendy,” he then looked back at me. “But you,” he pointed a finger at me. “I like you, you’ve got a good character, don’t lose that.” 

I smiled slightly, “Thank you Stan.” 

“Alright, let’s save the sap,” he said now standing up, fixing his bowtie. “Wendy and Soos should be here any minute and so should the tourists.” A second later the gift shop bell rang. “Duty calls.” And with that, Stan walked out of the room. I stood up soon after as well, putting everything back where it belonged and patted my pocket to make sure the knife was still there. It was. 

I quickly walked upstairs to the attic bedroom, opened the door and stepped inside, making sure to lock it when it was closed. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the blade and did a small twirl with it in my hand. Now sitting on one of the beds, I dragged my bag to my feet and brought it up onto my lap, making sure that my name was facing me. With some effort I was able to get the entire blade of the knife inside the thick backpack fabric and began to cut at it. I made sure that there were jagged edges of the cut and even scratched the internal fabrics of the bag and I ripped out the name once I was able to grasp it so there would be loose threads everywhere, it needed to look as natural as possible. With that in mind, I added extra cuts and holes throughout the bag’s surface to make it even more convincing.

Grabbing the cut out pieces, along with the knife, I stuffed them into my pocket and stood up. I kicked my bag to the right corner of the room and made my way over to the door, unlocked it and stepped through it to the stairs where I heard light chatter. Peeking my head around the corner and down the staircase, I spotted Wendy and Soos conversing near the foot of the steps and sighed in relief at the fact that it was just them and not some government agents. I started to make my way down and they instantly spotted me.

“What’s up, Matt? Me and Soos were just about to come and get you,” Wendy called. 

I raised an eyebrow in response, “You were getting me for what exactly?” 

“We are going to help you get started working here, like us!” Soos said excitedly. 

They both started to walk to the gift shop as Wendy spoke, “Get your keister over here, noobie. You’ve got a lot to learn.” I gave a small smile as I followed suit. The best part about starting work here is that no one knows who I am, but I practically know everyone. Soos held the door open for me as we walked into the iconic gift shop. Wendy turned to me and out her hands on her hips. “First order of business, clean up your mess from yesterday.” She grabbed a broom from the corner of the room and handed it to me.

I took a deep breath, “Fair enough.” I made my way over to the collapsed postcard stand while Wendy and Soos went over to the cash register. I placed the broom so that it was leaning against a shelf. I picked the stand off the ground and set it up properly. I glanced over to the pair on the other side of the room, I needed to learn even more about them. “So how old are you two anyway?” I asked as I knelt down and started picking up scattered postcards. I was pretty sure that I knew the answer but Wendy looked like she was at least eighteen (especially in the show) not fifteen, while Soos looked like he was his age, didn’t act like it though. 

“Fifteen,” Wendy replied as she leaned against the desk.

They both looked in my direction. “Twenty-two,” Soos said proudly. “What about you, dawg?”

“I’m sixteen,” I stated, looking smugly at Wendy.

“Boo, of course you’re older than me. I should have known, you’re pretty tall.” Wendy responded. She was at least five foot-ten, so to her I guess I was tall. Soos, on the other hand, was at least four inches taller than me, so around six foot-four. He really was a big dude. 

“Don’t let that put you down, Wendy,” I said. “You have more experience here than I do.” 

She snapped and gave me a finger gun motion, “That’s true,” Wendy smiled and I gave a small chuckle in response and returned the postcards in their proper place. Just then, Stan came bolting in the room panting heavily. 

All three of us snapped our attention to him. “Woah, Mr. Pines, are you all right?” Soos asked as Stan ran right past him. 

Stan blurted out, “I read the kids’ parent’s email wrong, they’re coming at 12!” I checked my phone to see the time, my eyes widened when I saw it. It was 11:47.  _ Okay, I was definitely in that shower for more than twenty minutes and I totally lost track of time, I hate when that happens!  _

Wendy spoke up, a bit frantic, “What?! How can you misread an email?!”

Stan glared at her, “I don’t know! I’m still getting used to this whole technology thing!”

“Technology doesn’t change the way numbers look ya codger!”  _ I think she meant boomer, is that even remotely close to a thing yet? _

I couldn’t help but smile at the classic Pines family mayhem. “Alright whatever, you made a mistake, just go get them right now.” I said reassuringly. 

Stan’s gaze switched to me, he did not calm down like I thought he would. “I can’t! I have a tour at the same time!” My face fell,  _ Yep that’s definitely a problem.  _

“Okay then, we’ll cover for you,” I said. “We’ll let the brain dead tourists check out all the merchandise while you’re gone.” Wendy snickered at the suggestion. 

Stan facepalmed and then looked at me while saying, “That’s not too good for business, kid. Those tourists are going to be way more interested in the gift shop after the tour.” 

I held a blank expression, “Do you have a choice?” He was about to reply with a raised finger, but he stopped midway through and muttered to himself.

He walked over to the door and opened it. “If anything goes wrong while I’m gone you’re all responsible, even if you didn’t do nothin’!” He slammed the door behind him as he ran out to his car, started it and gunned it so hard down the road that he destroyed a sign that said ‘BE AMAZED’ making Wendy lose it. 

Soos only sighed in response and said, “I’ll go get the spare.” That’s when I lost it too. The fact that Stan probably did something like that on a regular occasion is hilarious to me. Our laughter subsided when Soos walked outside with the spare sign and some tools. I glanced over to Wendy and I remembered what I needed to do. 

“Hey, um, Wendy,” I cleared my throat and she looked over to me. “Do you know my last name, by any chance?” 

She leaned back on the desk. “I wondered when you were going to ask me that. I have seen my fair share of last names, but yours I gotta say is kinda cool. I thought it was a nickname at first”  _ She wasn’t wrong, almost all of my friends call me by my last name. It’s been a little hard getting used to only being called by my first name and not my last.  _

I smirked a little, “It is kinda weird isn’t it?” She nodded in reply. “Okay, this is a huge favor to ask, but can we keep it a secret ginger to ginger? I’m not from around here and if Stan finds out my last name he could probably track me back to my hometown and I do not want him freaking out.” She nodded again in understanding, which alleviated a lot of stress that was building up. Wendy looked like she was about to bring something up, but Soos walking back into the building cut her off.

“Mr. Pines really needs to work on his driving,” Soos stated after the door closed behind him. “This is the fourth time this year that he has broken one of his own signs.” He shook his head. 

“Do you guys know anything about those twins anyway?” I needed to seem like I have no idea who they are. A few seconds later I heard a loud screech from outside and Stan’s car came barreling into view.

“Hehe, looks like we’ll find out soon, dude.” Soos replied with a chuckle. 

Soos and Wendy seemed completely cool and relaxed but I was confused. “Okay, am I the only one that noticed that he probably did a ten minute drive in about two?” They both shook their heads. “How many road safety laws did he break?!” I looked back and forth between the two and they just simply shrugged.

“That’s Stan for ya,” Wendy answered with a small chuckle. I turned around and looked out the window to see two kids get out the back seat of Stan’s car, one full of energy and excitement and the other visibly disheveled. Stan was a few feet ahead of them as he himself turned to face the two stepping out of the car. 

He declared loudly,” Welcome to the Mystery Shack!”


	3. Tourist Trapped

I was a little surprised, not really actually, at the fact Stan managed to drive to the bus drop off, pick up the twins and drive home in almost no time at all. Once Stan stepped inside I voiced my growing concern. “Stan, I have a couple questions, first I thought you said that the kids would be here at twelve.” I glanced at the clock in the corner of the gift shop. “It’s barely 11:50.” 

Stan just shrugged and replied, “Beats me kid I guess they were a little early, they were waiting when I arrived.” I heard Wendy give a very noticeable facepalm.

“And secondly, how many laws did you break driving there and back!?” I practically screamed.

“I don’t know, but it was certainly way too many,” a small voice said in the doorway behind Stan, prompting the old, reckless man to turn and face it. And there they were. My eyes bulged slightly at the sight of the twins. They were actually standing in front of me. I know that they were made short in the show to symbolize how young they really were, but they were taller than I thought they would be, both of their heads were just below my shoulders. Placing her bag down next to her with great excitement, Mabel was wearing her iconic shooting star sweater and in her hair was her pink headband. She had a huge smile on her face, showing her braces and I could swear that I saw some twinkles in her wild eyes. Her brown hair was the exact same color as her brother’s, who was standing behind her with both hands on his backpack straps. Although Dipper hid it well, I could see in his eyes that he was a little nervous to be here. He was wearing his brown star cap that he will soon lose later, and had his orange t-shirt with his navy vest covering it. 

Stan looked back at his extended family and then to me, Wendy, Soos and gave a small clap. “Okay introduction time.” Everyone in the room looked at him. “These two, are my grand niece and nephew, M-“ 

Mabel cut her uncle off with a boom of excitement, “Hi! My name is Mabel Pines! I am twelve years old, thirteen by the end of this summer!” She stepped back slightly behind her brother and placed both hands on his shoulders saying, “And this is my twin brother Dipper.” Dipper gave a very shy wave to the group before him and Mabel stepped forward again, her impossible smile growing, and asked, “Well, who are you guys?” 

Wendy gave a small chuckle and pointed to Mabel, “She is full of energy, I like her.” Wendy rectracted her finger and gestured to Soos and I. “The big guy is Matt, and the even bigger guy is Soos.” Both of us smiled at the twins, Soos did it because of his kind nature but I did to try and ease Dipper. 

Soos tipped his cap for the twins while I reached out for a fist bump for Mabel. She gladly reciprocated my action, maybe a little too enthusiastically, my knuckles stung after her fist hit mine. Next was Dipper, I reached out just like I had done a few seconds ago with his sister and he looked at my fist and then to the uncovered, very notable bruise on my hand. I had completely forgotten that was there, but I hid my slight panic and he fist bumped me very reluctantly.

Wendy then gestured to herself, “My name’s Wendy, and no, me and Matt are not siblings.” Huh, never really thought about that, we do look kind of similar, same hair color, same skin tone… then again all gingers have that.

Mabel’s face fell a little bit, but she remained excited as ever. “Aw, I really thought that we were going to twin it up in here.” Wendy and I looked at each other and then to Dipper and he just gave a shrug. “Ah whatever,” Mabel continued. “We can still be friends!”  _ I sure hope so! _

Stan spoke up after a few seconds, needing confirmation that his grand niece was done talking before he did so himself. “Wendy is the Mystery Shack’s cashier and Soos is our handyman.” Stan then looked at me for a moment, trying to come up with a title for me. It was indeed a smart move not telling the twins that I had “memory loss”, imagine what it would be like then having to tell the two of them that I would not only be looking after them, but bunking with them as well. That most definitely would not go over well. “And Matt here is new, so the three of us are going to be showing him the ropes until he gets the hang of it. But until then, he will be looking after you guys…and you will be sharing a room with him.” Stan said that last part in no more than a whisper so no one would hear him except me. 

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, they had heard their grunkle speak but couldn’t make it out. I then leaned over to Stan and motioned him closer so I could whisper in his ear. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell them, you’ve already been sketchy enough in front of them.” We both pulled away from each other and Stan gave me a quick nod that not only showed his understanding, but his gratitude as well. If the twins knew that their uncle had authorized a teenager four years older than they are to sleep in the same room as them, it would most likely plant the seeds of disapproval in their minds for their great uncle. Stan is truly amazing, even if he doesn’t seem like it.

“Okay,” I said after a few seconds of silence, and I’m pretty sure I scared Soos with my sudden announcement. “Stan, how about I show Dipper and Mabel to their room and you guys can take care of things down here.” 

Stan flipped his eye patch over his glasses and gave me a thumbs up, “You got it kid.” If I didn’t know any better I’d say that I was starting to grow on him. “Wendy, Soos, you two know what you guys have to do.”

Wendy gave a nod and walked behind the counter and took her seat and Soos tightened his toolbelt that I didn’t even notice he had on. “Sure thing Mr. Pines,” Soos replied and walked out of the room. 

Stan turned to me and the twins, “Once the work day gets going all three of you are going to help out around here, but for now Matt is going to show you around. I’ll see ya later.” Stan then walked out the front door and the second the door was closed Wendy pulled out a magazine that was underneath the register. 

I couldn’t help but laugh at that, “Nice,” I said with a thumbs up and then gestured for the twins to follow me. Mabel picked up her bag that she had placed down earlier and they both followed me out of the giftshop. 

Once we reached the bottom of the stairs I decided that it was a good idea to break the ice with the both of them. “So what brings you guys to Gravity Falls anyway?” I had to start simple in order for them to get comfortable with me.

To my surprise, Dipper was the one that answered my question, “Well, our parents decided that we could use some fresh air so they sent us from our hometown in California up to here. We should be staying in town for the rest of the summer.” Dipper let out a sigh after he was finished talking. I knew that Dipper didn’t want to come here at first, but I know for a fact that he did not regret being here after summer ended. It will just take some time. 

We were about to walk into the bedroom and I turned to face them. “I know it might suck, being pulled from your element and all, but trust me this summer is going to be great.” I noticed Mabel grew excited at my comment, but Dipper did not show any signs of his mood lightening up. 

Mabel placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder, “He’s right bro-bro, we can do so much this summer that we could have never done back in Piedmont.”

A small smile started to grow on my face, “Yeah think about it, no parents and no boundaries! And plus I get to look after you guys, I know that both of you are twelve and that you don’t really want any parental guidance, but I’m not going to act like an overbearing parent needing to know what you're doing every second of the day.” I could see Dipper start to give a little smile at my reassurance. “I want you guys to have fun this summer and have the time of your lives.” I turned back around to face the door, “And now presenting your room!” Turning the knob and pushing the door to the room open, I let them walk in first and watched Mabel run straight over to her bed and pull out some posters she must have gotten from home. She wasted no time at all putting them up on the wall beside her sleeping spot.

When Mabel was finished, she faced Dipper and I, “This attic is amazing!” She shook her hands out in front of her in excitement. “Check out all my splinters!” Mabel quickly plucked them out of her hands and hopped off of her bed. 

“And there’s a goat on my bed.” I turned to see Dipper standing defensively and staring at the animal that had just bleated at him.

I walked forward, “How did Gompers get up here and through the door without anyone knowing?” I tried to get him to move, but it was no use. 

Mabel made her way across the room and over my bed. Well, mattress. “Aww, he has a name!” Dipper and I exchanged glances as Mabel began to pet the goat. “Hey friend!” Soon after, Gompers started to chew on Mabel’s sweater. “Oh, yes you can keep chewing on my sweater.” She gave a small laugh either realizing that she said was crazy or she really thought a goat biting her clothing was funny. Either way she didn’t stop him so I intervened.

I picked up the goat and he bleated in protest, but I held my grip. “C’mon Gompers let’s get you outta here.” I turned and faced the twins and saw that they started unpacking their things. “Once you guys are done settling, meet me outside, okay?” 

Mabel saluted in response and yelled, “Yes sir, summer caretaker sir!” I laughed and descended the stairs and thought that I should exit through the gift shop, since that was the way the twins walked into the shack. They probably didn’t know another exit so that’s the way I went. I pushed the employees only door open using my shoulder and walked into the giftshop.

Wendy, to my surprise, had responsibly put down her magazine since now there were tourists in the room. She looked at me as soon as I walked through the door and gave a confused look when she realized that I was carrying a goat. She was about to say something but I cut her off, “Don’t ask. I hardly know myself.” That was all she needed, and she went back to doing her job as a customer walked up to the counter. 

“Hey, excuse me?” I stopped and turned to see a tourist holding her son’s hand. “Can I take a picture of your goat with my son? It's his favorite animal.” I looked down at the boy and he was very happy to see the animal, I couldn’t break his little heart. The mother looked like she was in her mid forties and her son was wearing a question mark t-shirt, which I assume was just bought and had a mix of blonde and brown hair, his head barely reached his mother’s waist.

“Of course he can,” I said squatting down. I let go of Gompers and he made his way over to the boy. The child started giggling when the mischievous goat started sniffing his hand and then started to lick it. 

Not wanting to pass up the moment, the boy’s mother let go of her son’s other hand to take a photo. As soon as Gompers saw a camera being pulled out, he changed his interest from the hand to the shirt the boy was wearing. I then heard a click, indicating that a picture was taken and the mother put her camera away and pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to me. “Thank you so much, that picture is so precious!” She took her giggling son’s hand. “Have a nice day!” They began to walk away, making Gompers bleat. He lost a new friend.

“Wow look at you,” Wendy started when the two were gone. “You're a natural.”

I turned and faced her, “You saw that right?”

She nodded, “All of it, that was very generous of her.” I heard footsteps approaching and I quickly pocketed the money and picked up Gompers and he started chewing on my sweatshirt.

The goat was a little more relentless this time like he was trying to actually eat it. “Hey, Gompers! Stop it!” I let go of him with one hand and with it, I tried to pry his mouth off of my chest.  _ Is he hissing at me? I didn’t know goats hiss!  _ The twins walked in and Wendy started laughing hysterically at my effort to get my sweatshirt free. “C’mon let go, this is brand new!” The twins started to laugh too at the sight before them and then a loud rip silenced everyone. 

I let go of his head and heard him swallow the piece of fabric that he tore. I held him with both hands again and brought him to eye level. “You are one stupid goat.” He just bleated at me in response making everyone start laughing again, including me. 

“You know he didn’t mean it right?” Dipper asked after the laughter subsided. 

I sighed in response, “Yeah I know, but it sure feels like he did.”

Wendy went back to reading her magazine from earlier, still laughing lightly and I glanced back down at the goat in my arms. “Okay mister, time for you to back outside.” Mabel ran ahead of me and held the gift shop door open for me, Dipper followed suit. I noticed that he took a book and a pen out of his vest pocket, he might need a little push so he doesn’t isolate himself all the time. 

After I descended the steps I walked a few yards and then set Gompers down back on his feet. He trotted away, not a care in the world. I looked up to see Mabel on top of a grassy hill and Dipper sitting at the base of a tree near the bottom of said hill. I smiled knowing what comes next.

Mabel laid herself down and loudly proclaimed as she started rolling, “Yay! Grass!” She sped right past her brother who had a woodpecker on top of his hat now and was pecking at him while writing in his book. I then saw Stan creeping up behind him with his swamp monster mask on and I wanted to call out to him, but I was too late. Dipper let out a shriek and fell over as Stan yelled, “BOO!” When he recovered, Dipper just stared at his great uncle, without the slightest sign of amusement on his face. Stan was laughing his head off after he took off the mask that somehow went over his fez. He slapped his knee while still laughing and started coughing up a storm. “Augh augh augh, ough, it was worth it.” He hit his chest hoping it was the last of the surprise onslot. 

I made my way over to the two and crossed my arms. “I know that he is your grand nephew and all, but I don’t think that you should be scaring him like that.” Dipper stood up and dusted himself off. “Don’t you have a tour to take care of?” 

“It just ended and the mask was a prop that I used,” Stan said and then looked at Dipper. “Don’t worry kid, you weren’t the only one to get spooked by me today.

I rolled my eyes, and Dipper responded, “Gee, thanks.” Mabel then ran up to us, clearly dizzy from rolling down the hill, she could hardly stand up straight. Her brother looked at her with a degree of concern, “Mabel are you okay?”

She clumsily waved a hand through the air in response, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, but you sure got spooked there huh bro-bro? That was a good one Grunkle Stan!” She went to give him a high five, but she fell on her face from not being able to control her momentum. Even though she had her face in the ground she gave us all a thumbs up, “I’m okay!” Her voice was heavily muffled and we barely heard her. Despite Mabel poking fun at him, Dipper still helped her up to her feet, you gotta admire that. 

Stan looked at the watch on his wrist, “Okay fun’s over people.” When Mabel was back on her feet she gave a very exaggerated ‘Aw’, but he ignored it and led us back into the Mystery Shack. As soon as we walked through the door, Stan gave Dipper the broom that was leaning against the wall and pointed over to a sign that read ‘NO REFUNDS’. Dipper took the broom, walked over to the spot his grunkle wanted him to clean. He started sweeping with a notable sigh. Mabel followed him and showed interest in a large demon eyeball that was on sale. She went to touch it with her hand but Stan quickly ran over and hit her hand with his eight-ball cane. “No touching the merchandise.” This made Mabel frown and Stan walked away into the museum.

_ I kind of forgot how ruthless Stan could be, especially at the beginning of the summer. The twins haven’t melted his heart yet.  _ I crossed my arms and shook my head, “He has some nerve.” They both looked kind of upset. “Don’t worry he’ll warm up to guys eventually, and we’ll do whatever you guys want later.” 

After I finished speaking the gift shop bell rang indicating that a customer walked in, Mabel and I turned to see who it could be while Dipper went back to sweeping the floor. The newcomer was a boy, probably the same age as the twins, and he walked over to the stand of cards that I knocked over yesterday. Mabel quickly ran over to him. 

Dipper rolled his eyes at his sister, “Here we go.”

When she approached her unsuspecting interest, he had picked up a card off of the stand and was reading it. Once Mabel was right behind him she grabbed his attention, “My name’s Mabel, but you can call me the girl of your dreams.” She batted her eyelashes at the poor kid and I could tell that he was very surprised, he even looked at me and I just shrugged. “I’m joking!” Mabel pushed him into the stand of cards and onto the wooden floor. She started laughing maniacally, “Ha Ha Ha HA!” 

She ran back to me and Dipper, we just gave a look of disapproval. Mabel didn’t seem to notice and she proclaimed, “I think he likes me.”  _ Ya don’t say?  _

I shook my head and made my way over to the kid who was still sprawled out on the ground. I offered him my hand, “I’m really sorry about her, sometimes I don’t think that she realizes her destructive tendencies.” The boy took my hand and I pulled him to his feet.

“It’s whatever,” He said as he dusted himself off. “But if it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna go before another attempt on my life is made.” I nodded and he sped out of the door. 

Wendy clapped her hands, “Woohoo, nice going Mabel!” Mabel put her hands on her hips and beamed at the comment. 

I picked up the stand and started placing the cards back in their respective places. “Don’t encourage this,” I said to Wendy, making her laugh a little. 

“Hey Dipper,” Mabel asked, prompting him to look at his sister. “Do you have a piece of paper and a pen?” Dipper nodded as he placed the broom on the wall and reached into his vest. He tossed her his pen from earlier and tore some paper out of the book he was writing in. “Thanks Dipper!” Mabel wasted no time and began to furiously write something down. 

Some time went by and eventually, the next finished tour group walked into the gift shop and were browsing at the Shack’s merchandise. Mabel was whispering to herself behind a shelf that was crowded with Mr. Mystery exclusive bobbleheads as a different boy stepped on a paper that she had dropped there a few minutes earlier. He picked it up and began reading what was written on it out loud, “Uh, Do you like me? Yes. Definitely. Absolutely?” He looked around with confusion.

“I rigged it!” Mabel quietly yelled. 

Dipper rolled his eyes once again at his sister’s antics. “Mabel,” Dipper grabbed her attention. “I know you’re going through your whole ‘Boy Crazy’ phase but I think you’re kind of overdoing it with the ‘Crazy’ part.” Dipper was washing a jar of eyeballs that a kid got his fingerprints all over a few minutes prior with a wet rag.

Mabel turned to face her brother and I leaned on the wall, wanting to hear their conversation. “What!” Mabel said loudly and then blew a raspberry. “Come  _ on,  _ Dipper! This our first summer away from home. It’s my big chance to have an epic summer romance.”

Dipper spread his arms out a little and questioned his sister, “Yeah, but do you have to flirt with every guy you meet?” He put his arms back to his sides and looked at me, “Right after we got off the bus, she saw a kid holding a turtle sitting on a bench and started flirting with him. And don’t even get me started when she saw the mattress prince.” 

I stifled a laugh and Mabel shook her finger at Dipper, “Mock all you want, brother but I’ve got a good feeling about this summer.” She gestured behind her with her thumb and stated, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now.” 

Heavenly music played in my mind as Stan walked through the museum door holding signs under his right arm and a can of Pitt Cola in his right hand, belching very loudly. “Oh. Oh! Not good, ow.” 

Mabel squinted in disgust, “Oh, why?!” Dipper and I laughed at Mabel’s misfortune. 

I crossed my arms, “Careful what you wish for Mabel.” 

She stuck out her tongue, “Bleh, yup, lesson learned.” 

Once most of the tourists had filed out Stan declared, “Alright, alright, look alive people! I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest.”

“Not it!” The three of us yelled. 

Soos, who was now installing a shelf into the wall with a power drill, said, “Uh, also not it!”

Stan’s voice quieted down a bit, “Nobody asked you Soos.”

“I know, and I’m comfortable with that,” he stated as he pulled half of a chocolate bar out of his pocket and began eating it. 

Stan turned to the otherside of the room where Wendy was lazily reading her magazine and shouted, “Wendy! I need you to put up this sign!”

She made an attempt to grab it from the other side of the room, “I would, but I-uhh-can’t-uhh- reach it-uhh.” 

Stan blatantly said, “I’d fire all of you if I could.” He turned and faced us, “Alright, let’s make it eeny-meeny-miney-you.” Stan pointed his finger at Dipper.

He looked surprised, he should have seen it coming. “Oh, what? Grunkle Stan,when I was near those woods I felt like I felt like I was being watched.” 

Stan rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Ah,  _ this  _ again. I’ve heard so many people coming through here saying that they have seen some weird stuff in the woods.” 

“I’m telling you, something feels weird about this town. In the short time I’ve been here my mosquito bites spell out ‘BEWARE.’

Dipper extended his arm to show his uncle. “That says ‘BEWARB,’” Stan said in response causing Dipper to scratch the bites in embarrassment. “Look kid,” Stan made air quotes with his free hand. “The whole ‘Monsters In The Forest’ thing is just local legend.” He then gestured to himself, “It’s drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that.” He pointed to a sweaty bald guy laughing idiotically at a Mr. Mystery bobblehead. Stan tossed the signs under his right arm into Dipper’s hands. “So quit being so paranoid!” 

Dipper only gave a sigh in response. I put a hand on his shoulder, “I’ll come with you.” Stan handed me a hammer and some nails and I led Dipper over to the door and held it open for him. Once we descended the porch steps Dipper sighed again, “Ugh, nobody believes anything I say.” He then pointed to the trees on the edge of the clearing that the shack was located in. “Like, all those branches up there are snapped for no reason at all and right underneath them there is a small indent in the ground indicating that something fell there.” I just awkwardly looked to the side and kept walking forward. “If that’s not weird, I don’t know what is.”

After a few seconds of silence I spoke up, “I don’t think you’re wrong Dipper, this town does have a really weird vibe to it.” He didn’t reply and we made our way over to the trees near the dirt road leading to what I assumed to be a main town road. “Why would he want us to hang up signs in the forest anyway, it’s not like people are going to see them.”

Dipper shrugged, “Beats me, but let’s just get this over with.” Both of us walked off the road and into the woods. When I found a tree that resembled the fake one I told him to come over.  _ If he wants to get it over with, so be it. _ He handed me a sign and I hit a nail into the tree and it made a clang sound. “Wait what?” I tried to sound as confused as I could. I didn’t want to seem suspicious, even though the first tree that I hit was a metal one. Could have thought that through more.

Dipper placed his hand on the trunk and moved it along in front of it, dust was all over it. I stepped back as Dipper saw a small seam in the side of the trunk, he was going to pry it open. The hatch groaned in protest and revealed a console with two switches on top of it. He reached out and flipped one of the switches, “What is all of this?”

“I have no idea, but I knew something was weird about this place!” I said with a big smile on my face.  _ Now this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen! I actually have a first hand experience of Dipper discovering the journal.  _ He flipped the second switch and we heard a machine whir behind us revealing a dug out hole in the ground that Gompers just so happened to be grazing at. This scared the goat and he ran away with a loud bleat. 

Both of us turned around to see the cobwebbed mechanical hole in the ground. I then realized that Dipper was looking at me a little suspiciously so I squinted at the hole, “Is that a book?” This question peeked Dipper’s interest even more, making him walk over and peer into the hole for himself. He stared wide eyed at the dusty old journal before him, not even the bugs that crawled out of the item’s chamber could shake Dipper’s curiosity. He reached in with both hands and lifted the journal out of the ground, tearing the cobwebs from its front and back cover in the process. 

Once it was eye level with him, Dipper gave a mighty blow which cleared off most of the dust from the book revealing a golden six fingered hand with a number three written in the middle of it. He placed it down on the ground and got on all fours, prompting me to sit beside him since my knees still hurt.

Dipper opened the cover of the book and inspected the monocle attached to the book. He then turned the page and read aloud, “‘It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of of Gravity Falls, Oregon.’” Dipper turned the old crinkled page and we both stared, awestruck, at the contents of the book. It revealed floating eyeballs, giant vampire bats, gnomes and even cursed objects. 

He kept flipping until he noticed that the pages went blank, flipping back to the previous page I read its contents. “‘Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I’m being watched. I must hide this book before  _ he _ finds it. Remember, in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust.’” 

We both looked at one another and then back to the book and Dipper echoed, “No one you can trust…” We both stood up and he closed the book, he was looking at me unsure of what to say next.

“HELLO!” Mabel shouted loudly behind us, making both of us scream. “Watcha reading some nerd thing?”

Dipper quickly stuffed the journal behind his back and stuttered, “Uh-uh-it’s nothing!” 

Mabel imitated her brother, “Uh-uh-it’s nothing!” She laughed at herself and then asked light heartedly, “What? Are you actually not going to show me?” 

Dipper looked to me for confirmation but I was too busy fending off Gompers who was trying to chew on my pant leg. He then looked back to his sister and said, “Let’s go somewhere more private.” 

  
  


Now walking back on the road leading to the Mystery Shack, I took off my ruined sweatshirt and slung it over my shoulder and I was now proudly showing off my own question mark t-shirt. The cuts and bruises on my arms were now completely visible, but I didn’t care. I sighed, “I shouldn’t have picked up that stupid goat again, I should’ve known that he was going to chew on me and make an even bigger hole.” 

Mabel stifled a giggle, “He really doesn’t like you, but not to worry!” I looked at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. “You just so happen to be in the presence of an arts and crafts master.”

I smiled and Dipper rolled his eyes, “You don’t even have a sewing machine with you that you can fix it with, and I highly doubt that Stan has one laying around.”

That point discouraged Mabel a little bit, but not for long. She perked up a few seconds later, “We can go get one!” 

Dipper shrugged realizing that he lost, making me laugh, “I have some money, so after we show your sister what we found, how about we head into town?” They both nodded and it was settled. Once we reached the shack, instead of going through the giftshop I showed them the house entrance on the other side of the building and we entered the shack. All three of us quickly went upstairs to the attic and once we were all inside I turned and locked the door. I threw my sweatshirt on my mattress. 

With the room now secured, Dipper pulled out the old journal and walked to his sister who was now seated on her bed with great excitement, “It’s amazing! Grunkle Stan thought I was being paranoid, but according to this Gravity Falls has this secret darkside.”

Dipper showed Mabel some pages of the book prompting him to hit it in disbelief, “Woah, shut up!”

Dipper’s smile grew, “And get this: After a certain point, the pages just stop, like the guy who was writing it mysteriously disappeared.”

I walked over to my backpack, bent down and zipped open a zipper for my wallet. I'm going to need more than ten dollars for the cost of a sewing machine. Just then I realized that almost all of the contents of my bag are school supplies, so I noted to hide them somewhere at one point. I stood up and faced them, “That book has some seriously wacky stuff in it, I wonder how much of it is actually real?”

Dipper looked at me with hope in his eyes, “Maybe all of it is real, and the fact that there are most likely two other journals- since this one has a number three on its cover- is insane!”

Dipper started flipping through the pages once again and Mabel’s gaze drifted to the mattress in the middle of the room.  _ Oh boy.  _ “Matt, why is there an extra bed in here anyway?” Mabel asked, swinging her legs innocently on the bed. 

I had to think fast, “I actually slept up here last night, Stan was showing me everything around here until it was very late so I just bunked here.”  _ That’s somewhat believable.  _ “I knew that you guys were coming in the morning, so I didn’t sleep on your beds because I would get them all dirty or mess up the sheets.”  _ That’s the best I’m going to get.  _

Dipper looked up from the journal and waved a hand through the air, “It would have been fine man. Also, why didn’t you sleep on that couch in the T.V. room?”

Mabel gave a small laugh at my blank face and eventually I smiled too. “Yeah, that would have been smart wouldn’t it?” I said. “Ah, well the past is in the past. C’mon you two, let’s get a move on.” I walked over to the door, unlocked it, and stepped out with the twins following suit. 

For what felt like the millionth time, we walked into the giftshop and over to Wendy’s cashier desk. Wendy heard us come in and put down her magazine, “There you guys are! I was wondering where you went.”

I scratched the back of my head, “Yeah sorry about that, I was showing them around and now they want to go into town for a little while. Do you know where the keys to the golf cart are?” Without saying a word Wendy opened a drawer and tossed the keys to me. I smiled, “Thanks Wendy, you’re the best.” 

She gave a smirk, “Anytime.” Her focus switched to the twins. “How do you guys like it here so far?”

Dipper patted his vest pocket that contained the journal, “It is certainly growing on us.”

Wendy gave a bit of a surprised look, “Well that’s nice to hear, you guys have fun.”

All three of us waved goodbye and walked outside and into the parking lot. 

Mabel started sprinting over to the cart and yelled, “Shotgun!” She quickly jumped into the cart, buckled her seatbelt and began tapping her foot furiously. Mabel’s tempo grew faster and faster the closer Dipper and I got.

“She must really want that sewing machine, huh?” I asked Dipper.

“She really loves her arts and crafts, the sweater she is wearing right now is one she made herself,” Dipper said with clear pride in his sister.

Once we reached the cart, I sat in the driver’s seat, inserted the key into the ignition, and started the engine. After I made sure that they both had seatbelts on, I backed out of the parking lot and drove onto the road away from the shack. “We’ve got a little bit of a ride ahead of us, so if you have any questions about me go ahead and shoot.” I know pretty much everything about them, it’s only fair for them to get to know me too. 

The twins exchanged glances and Dipper asked, “I didn’t want to be rude earlier, but now since the door to ask questions is open, we were wondering why you’re all jacked up.”

Mabel chimed in, “Yeah, what’s with all the small cuts on your face and bruises on your arms. You didn’t get in a fight did you?”

I cracked a smile, “No, Mabel, I didn’t get into a fight. For starters, the bruises only look as bad as they do because of my pale skin, they don’t really hurt all that much.”  _ That’s a big lie.  _ All day my arms and legs have been in a good deal of pain, I’ve just been masking it surprisingly well. Walking up and down the attic stairs has been quite annoying, but good thing no running has been involved yet. “I got both the cuts and bruises from running in the woods, well running from  _ something. _ I don’t know what it was but I didn’t want to stick around to find out. Branches hit me in the face, hence all the scratches, and I tripped a few times which resulted in all the bruises.”  _ Wow, I don't like how easy this lying thing is getting.  _

Dipper was quiet for a moment, “Do you think whatever chased you was paranormal?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” I said, deciding to fuel his imagination and excitement. “It sounded like nothing I’ve heard before.” I took my eyes off the road for a second and looked at Dipper, his face twisted in a big goofy smile, and I found myself smiling as well as I looked back at the road. We were now coming up to the main road and I wasn’t sure which way was the correct way into town, but I went with my gut that said go right. It was the correct call, after about another minute of driving I spotted the Tent of Telepathy and the Gleeful family’s car dealership. I couldn’t help but feel like the tent’s star symbol was staring at me so I sped up. 

“Wow look at the size of that mall!” Mabel exclaimed. While I was busy looking at our future enemy’s residence, the twins were looking all the way down the street, at least a mile, and saw the Gravity Falls Mall.

Dipper put his hand to his chin, “Why does such a small town need such a big mall?”

I shrugged, “Beats me kid, but it is very convenient for the little quest that we’re on. There has got to be an arts and crafts store in there somewhere.” 

We reached the mall and parked the vehicle and I made sure to take the keys out of the ignition so that no one would commit grand theft cart. Once we were actually inside the mall, it took us a few minutes of searching to find the store that we needed and once we did Mabel pointed at it and sprinted right on in with Dipper and I following suit. When we walked in we saw Mabel scouring the shelves for a sewing machine that she liked. She eventually stopped at one, finally giving us a chance to get over to her.

“Mabel calm down, these machines aren’t going anywhere,” Dipper said slightly out of breath.

She lifted the sewing machine off of the shelf and into my hands, when I found the price tag I almost dropped it, thank god I didn’t. “Mabel,” I started and she looked at me excitedly. “This machine is well over four hundred dollars, I can’t get this for you.” Mabel’s face fell, but then, very quickly, it lightened up. She went over to another shelf, grabbed a different sewing machine and handed it to me. I honestly expected this one to cost even more than the first one, but when I looked at the price tag it was only, “Huh, fifty dollars.” I looked up to Mabel and her smile broadened as I handed it back to her. “Let’s go ring it up,” I said to her with a smile. 

The three of us then made our way over to the register and I bought the item with no problem. When we exited the art store I could see Dipper looking into another store’s window that clearly suited him. Inside on the shelves I could see there were comics, video games, trading cards and even some paranormal stuff that was totally his style.

“Hey Mabel,” I caught her attention and could see that the smile she had earlier never left her face. “Why don’t you go back out to the golf cart and wait for us, we gotta check something out.”

“Okay,” Mabel said happily as she started running through the mall to the exit, just barely being able to look over the box in her arms. 

Dipper looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “Are you sure that’s a good idea, she can hardly see anything when she’s carrying that.” As if on cue we heard Mabel yell ‘Sorry!’ to a random person that she must’ve bumped into.

I waved a hand through the air, “She’ll be fine, besides I saw you eyeing up the store behind us. Wanna go check it out?”  _ There’s no way me sending Mabel out on her own can backfire! Wait, actually…  _

A grin grew on Dipper’s face, “Really?” His response cut off my thoughts.

I put a hand on his shoulder, “Of course! Your sister got something she wanted, only makes sense that you do too.” I led him into the store, and just like his sister, he was running up and down the shelves looking for something that interested him. After a few minutes of searching, Dipper came back to me holding a CD That said one word on it, ‘BABBA.’ He handed it to me and I made a huge smile, and his face fell. I bet he thought that I was going to laugh at him, but I wouldn’t dream of it. “Now this is an absolutely stupendous choice, my friend!” Dipper’s face lit up again and I brought it over to the cash register.

I pulled out the ten dollars from my pocket and handed it to the man behind the counter. The cashier looked at me with a confused look to which I responded, “Is there a problem here, sir?” The man quickly shook his head and handed the CD back to me and I took my change. 

As soon as we left the store I tossed the music case to Dipper who fumbled it for a moment but eventually secured it in his grasp. “Thank you,” Dipper said quietly, prompting me to look over to him. 

“You’re welcome.” 

We walked in a comfortable silence until we saw Mabel sitting in the golf cart in very high spirits gaze off at the cemetery. I nudged Dipper with my elbow, “Hey, is it just me or does your sister look even more happy than when she got the sewing machine?”

Dipper squinted to get a better view of his sister, “Huh, you’re right.” Once we got closer Dipper grabbed Mabel’s attention. “Hey Mabel, what are you so stoked about? You look more energized than usual.”

Her attention snapped to us indicating that she had no idea that we were there. “Oh hey guys,” Mabel said with a small wave. 

Once I got in the driver’s seat I put a hand on her shoulder and asked, “Are you okay, you seem pretty distant, like you’re looking forward to something.”

She looked back and forth really quickly, “I’m fine, I-I just kind of got lost in my imagination waiting for you two to come back,” Dipper and I just shrugged at one another and I started the cart’s engine and drove us off back to the Mystery Shack. 

Once we arrived, Mabel was glancing around as if looking for something, maybe even someone. It got to a point where she was just standing still surveying her surroundings with a smile on her face. I had to call out to her so she would come back inside. 

I led the twins back into the gift shop, with Mabel’s new sewing machine under my left arm, so I could return the keys to Wendy. She looked up from her magazine when she heard the bell ring, “Throw ‘em here.” I took the keys out of my pocket and tossed them to her now open hand. She made quite an impressive one handed grab and catch for them, making Mabel clap. “Huh, I didn’t take you for a sewer, Matt,” Wendy said as she was putting the keys away.

“Actually, I just got this for Mabel. I know you saw the goat bite a hole in my sweatshirt, so Mabel is going to fix it up for me!” I gave her a high five and the sound was extremely satisfying.  _ Ow! Yeah, she definitely high fives hard.  _

Wendy smiled, “That’s really sweet, good to see that you guys are hitting it off. You can go on inside. I can handle myself out here.”

Dipper stepped forward, “Are you sure? We haven’t really been around to help for the past hour.” 

Wendy gave us a thumbs up, “Yes I’m sure.” She then made a shoo motion with her hand and just like that we were out of the room. Mabel found herself sitting on the arm of the couch and Dipper was already nose deep in the journal. 

  
  


Suddenly the doorbell rang. Dipper looked up from the journal, “Who’s that?”

Mabel shifted herself on the couch so that she was now facing her brother, “Well time to spill the beans.” Then she poked a can of beans nearby so that it fell over. “Boop! Beans.” My eyes widened severely.  _ She isn’t supposed to say that until she meets- _ “This girl has got a date, whoop, whoop!” She fell back on the couch laughing. I put a hand on my forehead and could only look at the floor.  _ This isn’t right! I know for a  _ **_fact_ ** _ that she didn’t meet “Norman” until a couple of days after she got here!  _ My hand found itself running down my face and I closed my eyes.  _ Come to think of it...Dipper wasn’t supposed to find the journal on the first day he was here either! My presence and actions must have sped up the process of the story somehow!  _ My eyes opened and since I was too shocked to pay attention to my surroundings I didn’t realize that Stan  _ and  _ Norman were now in the room. 

“We met at the cemetery. He’s  _ really  _ deep,” Mabel said as she was grabbing his arm. “Ooh! Little muscle there. What-what a surprise.”

Dipper squinted his eyes, “So what’s your name?” I glanced over to Grunkle Stan, his face was a little shocked too. I know he knew about all the paranormal stuff during the entire course of the show, so he must be thinking that something is off about him. I am going to have to bring that up later. 

Norman’s visible eye widened, “Uh...Normal...Man!” He struggled with his words.

“He means Norman,” Mabel said clinging closer to him.

“Are you bleeding, Norman?” Dipper asked not only with curiosity but growing suspicion as well.

“It’s jam.” 

Mabel hit her new boyfriend in the chest, not affecting him at all, “Oh! I  _ love _ jam!” She then gestured to herself and Norman at the same time, “Look at this!”

Norman looked down at Mabel and asked, “So, you wanna go hold hands or...whatever?”

Mabel put a hand over her mouth and giggled, “Oh! Oh, my goodness. Don’t wait up!” And with that she was gone. Norman gave Dipper, Stan and I a finger gun gesture and then followed suit, not after bumping into the wall a few times first. 

Dipper looked back to me and then to Stan before grabbing my arm and leading me upstairs, he somehow didn’t notice Soos on a stepladder fixing a light bulb. Dipper pulled out his journal and sat down at the seat in front of the window, “Okay, there is definitely something  _ off  _ about Norman.” I sat down next to him and he opened the book. The first page he opened, conveniently, the undead page. He began reading, “Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes, these creatures are often mistaken for...Teenagers?! Beware Gravity Falls’ nefarious…” He gasped loudly, making me crack a smile, “Zombie!” His voice echoed throughout the house, and I could have sworn I heard Stan state that he was losing his mind.

Dipper and I heard grunting coming from outside, so we quickly turned to look out of it to see Norman walking menacingly towards Mabel. Dipper’s eyes widened as he yelled, “Oh no, Mabel! No! No, Mabel! Watch Out!” Norman put his hands on Mabel’s shoulders making Dipper scream. I almost started laughing, Dipper kept pressing his face harder and harder into the window due to his accumulating stress. Norman removed his hands from Mabel’s shoulders to reveal that he had actually made a necklace of daisies for her.

Dipper placed a hand on his chin and stood up, “Is my sister really dating a zombie, or am I just going nuts?”

“It’s a dilemma to be sure,” Soos spoke up out of nowhere making Dipper flinch greatly. “I couldn’t help but hear you screaming in Matt’s ear in this great big empty room.”

Dipper turned to me, “Matt, you saw Mabel’s boyfriend. He’s got to be a zombie, right?”

Soos stopped what he was doing and squinted his eyes, “Hmm. How many brains did you see the guy eat?”

Dipper rolled his eyes and said in a disappointed voice, “Zero.”

“Look, dude, I believe you. I’m always noticing weird stuff in this town. Like the mailman? Pretty sure that dude’s a werewolf.” Soos then pointed to Dipper with his screwdriver, “But you gotta have evidence. Otherwise people are going to think you are a major league cuckoo clock.”

Dipper looked to the floor and nodded, “Yeah, You’re right, Soos.”

Soos looked into space and stated, “My wisdom is both a blessing and a curse.”

Then from downstairs, the three of us heard Stan yell, “Soos! The portable toilets are clogged again!”

Soos dutifully pulled down on his cap and said in a serious tone, “I am needed elsewhere.” And with that, he proceeded to back pedal out of the room.

Dipper put the journal back into his vest pocket and started to walk towards the stairs, “C’mon let’s go get some evidence.”

I reached out and grabbed him, “Alright listen, I would totally come with you, but how do you think people would react if they saw a big sixteen year old guy, like myself, secretly watching a preeteen girl?” 

“What about me?” Dipper asked.

“If someone does ask, which I doubt they will, just say that you are her brother and that you are making a summer time album for her.” I looked off to the side, “The people in this town will have to believe that.”

Dipper sighed, “Okay, I’ll go find a camera. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll do some more digging. Do you trust me with the book?” I said with a now outstretched hand.

“...Yes,” Dipper reached into his vest pocket and handed me the journal, making me smile.

“Don’t worry,” I said reassuringly, “I’ll give it back once we are done with this.” He nodded and he made his way back downstairs. Once I couldn’t see him anymore, I walked into the bedroom and hid the journal. I needed to find Stan. It took me a few minutes but I eventually found him seated in his office doing “taxes” and other stuff that must be illegal. I knocked on the open door and his gaze flew up to meet mine. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked.

Stan grabbed the papers on his desk and stuffed them in the top drawer of his desk. “Yeah sure kid, just give me a second here.” He was having trouble closing the drawer due to the abundance of papers but eventually shut it with a forceful push cleared his throat, “What’s on your mind,” He asked while I closed the door behind me. 

I stepped forward and crossed my arms, “What do you think of Mabel’s new boyfriend?”

Stan shrugged, “I don’t know, I just met the guy.”

_Okay maybe this requires a more direct approach._ “I think he’s a bit weird, it seems to be supernatural for him.”

Stan raised an eyebrow, “I’m not sure I follow…”  _ Okay I agree, that was kinda weak. _

I rolled my eyes and covered my face with my hand, “Ugh, you know what? Screw it!” I uncovered my face. “Do you think Norman is a zombie?” 

“Oh, so that’s what this is about,” Stan said with a laugh. “Kid, like I said to Dipper, all of that stuff isn’t real.”

I shot my arms in the air, startling Stan a bit, “Oh c’mon, Stan! Work with me here! We both know that you’re not an idiot, so would you stop acting like one?” Stan just looked at me blankly, “I know that you know that the supernatural exists, the only reason why you don’t want to admit it is because you want to protect people from it.” I crossed my arms again with a very serious expression. “You’re an old guy, no offense, and I bet you’ve been here for a while, so it would only make sense that you’ve seen at least something. I haven’t even been here for a full day and I've seen some unnatural stuff!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, none-” 

I cut him off, “Yes you do. I’m not going to tell the twins about this conversation, you can deny it all you want to them, but as their caretaker, I need to be on the same page with you. So, would you please give me the honest answer.”

Stan gave a long, irritated sigh, “Fine...yes...this town is full of unnatural and unholy things. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if that Norman kid is a zombie either. What should we do about that?”

I waved a hand at him, “Dipper and I have it under control, he’s out right now with them, gathering evidence.”

Stan pinched the bridge of his nose, “So let me get this straight, right now, my grandniece and nephew are in the unsupervised presence of a potential zombie, and the person that I assigned to supervise them is right in front of me telling me about the situation and nowhere near where he should be.”

I scoffed, “What?!” No, of course not.” Stan looked at me unamused, “They’re in public, there’s plenty of supervision there. Plus, if Norman were really dangerous, he would have eaten her brain the first time they met.” 

I turned and started walking to the door but Stan spoke up when my hand reached the door knob. His face was very serious. “Matt, if anything happens to them, I’m holding you responsible. Got it?”

I opened the door and looked back at him, “Don’t worry, Mr.Pines. I promise that they’ll be fine.” And with that I was out of the room.  _ Funny, it took an entire season to get Stan to admit to the supernatural and I just got him to say it exists in under five minutes.  _

I made my way back into the attic bedroom and shut the door behind me, all I needed to do was wait until Dipper comes back. I took the journal out of its hiding place, sat on my bed and began to look through its supernatural content. I have no idea how many times Dipper will actually let me look through this journal, so I need to refresh my memory on what this crazy town has in store for me. I purchased my own copy of journal number three a while back and I remember knowing that it has basically all the information that I need to be aware that the Mystery Shack once belonged to the author. When I decide to, which I know I will at some point, I can probably get Stan to reveal the portal to me. I always used to watch the theory videos of Stan having a twin brother, so I know where to look for the evidence that Stan is hiding something. He will try to deny that he is indeed hiding something but I am determined that I will get into that lab before Stan gets arrested, one way or another. 

But to be honest, I don’t even know if all of the crazy things the Pines family will encounter this summer will happen. So far I’ve already managed to speed up several plot points and dialogue from the show just by my presence, would it really be so far-fetched to say that other things will change? I’m not sure. I looked back down to the journal laying open in my lap. “One thing at a time,” I sighed to myself. The gnomes that we will encounter in a few hours, I have never dealt with anything like that in my life. I always feel like I would be the person to run towards danger, to protect those I care about, but I’ve never been in that kind of situation before. Would I put myself in harm's way to protect others? I’m not sure. 

With frustration growing, I ran both my hands through my hair and gave a groan. “Screw my overthinking brain, man. I hate it when I do that,” I muttered to myself. I began looking through the book again, Moth Man, scampfires, barf fairies, the abominable bro-man, ‘Steve?’ The fact that these are now real things completely baffles me, and the fact that I have a chance to see them is even more shocking. I got through half of the journal, mostly skimming over the experiences Ford had and thoroughly going over the creatures he had documented. 

A couple of hours had passed and I was so lost in my reading that I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the door creek open. Slightly panicked, I tossed the journal under Mabel’s bed and then turned to see who was entering. My expression eased a substantial amount when I realized it was only Dipper and not a certain old man. I pulled the recently discarded journal out from underneath the bed beside me and managed a small smile. “How did it go, find any proof that Norman is in fact not a normal man?”

Dipper only sighed and walked over to his own bed with the video camera by his side. He responded with a sigh, “No I didn’t get anything.” He looked down to the floor once he sat down. “It seems that Mabel’s boyfriend isn’t a zombie.” I frowned slightly at his response but he quickly perked up and stated, “But I haven’t given up hope, there is something definitely wrong with that guy, but for now let’s just stick with the assumption that he is one.” 

Our eyes flew to the open door as we saw Mabel, in high spirits, skip into the room with a grand smile on her face. She walked right over to a full body mirror in the corner of the room, grabbed a brush and began to groom her hair. Dipper stood up and walked over to his sister, “Mabel, we’ve got to talk about Norman.”

“Isn’t he the best?” She replied dreamily. “Check out this giant smooch mark he gave me.” Mabel turned her head and showed us a large red mark on her right cheek making me cringe and Dipper give a yelp.  _ That thing kinda does look like a zombie mark.  _ “Ha ha, Gullible! It was just an accident with the leaf blower.”  _ When did she even have time to do that?  _ “That was fun,” Mabel remonesiantly finished. 

Dipper slapped a hand onto his forehead, “No Mabel listen! I’m trying to tell you that Norman is not what he seems!” 

I revealed the journal to her, getting her attention, “Mabel, I know that you’re super stoked about being able to have an ‘epic summer romance’ but you have to think about this more.”

She gasped lightly, “Do you think he could be a vampire? That would be so awesome!” She pumped her hands forward and shook her fists wildly.

Dipper shook his head and I tossed the journal to him, surprisingly he caught it. “Guess again sister. Sha-bam!” He opened the book to reveal a gnome to Mabel, making her reel back in disgust. “Oh wait, I’m sorry.”  _ Oh the irony _ . “Sha-bam!” He flipped the pages to show his sister Ford’s sketch of a zombie.

Mabel put her fists on her hips, “A zombie? That is not funny guys!”

I wanted to get in on this too, so I stood up, prompting them both to look at me. “We’re not Joking! It all adds up: The bleeding, the limp…” 

I let Dipper cut me off, “He never blinks! Have you noticed that?” Dipper was in full freak out mode now.

“Maybe he’s blinking when you’re blinking,” Mabel said, trying to calm her brother down.

Dipper only grew more frantic at her response, “Mabel, the book says to trust no one in Gravity Falls!”

“What about me, huh? Why can't you trust  _ me?  _ Beep-bop!” _ Where did those earrings come from?  _ She’s trying to be reasonable, she really is, but Dipper won’t back down. 

He grabbed both of Mabel’s shoulders, “Mabel! He’s gonna eat your brain!”

Mabel took her brother’s hands off of her shoulders, the anger in her face was growing, she has had enough of his speculation. “Dipper, listen to me. Norman and I are going on an actual date within the hour,” She hit him in the chest. “And I’m gonna be  _ adorable,  _ and he’s gonna be  _ dreamy.  _ And I’m not going to let you ruin it with one of your crazy conspiracies!” She had backed Dipper completely out of the room and was about to slam the door on him but she turned to face me, I didn’t need any commands. I picked up the camera off of Dipper’s bed and walked out the door, as soon as I was clear the door was slammed. 

Dipper looked to the floor and I placed a hand on his shoulder, “No point in staying up here anymore.” I let go of him and walked to the staircase. “C’mon let’s go downstairs, I still want to see the footage, maybe you missed something.” Once we reached the T.V. room, I gestured him to sit on the couch and handed him the camera. I hovered above him, waiting for the oh so shocking moment. 

Dipper had recorded everything, I’m pretty sure that there was only one really long clip. He’s still got a lot to learn. After we were about ten minutes into the footage, the doorbell rang.  _ This feels so unnatural, the plot is progressing too fast _ . We heard Mabel shout that she was coming to the door. She was now wearing a very sparkly sweater with a large cat face on the front and when she opened the door, Mabel showed it off proudly.

Dipper and I both looked over to see Mabel now excitedly talking to her boyfriend. “Hey, Norman! How do I look?” The sparkles of her sweater nearly blinded me from the other side of the room.

Norman just shrugged, “Shiny.”

“You always know what to say,” Mabel said, taking his arm and leading him away from the shack.

Dipper rolled his eyes and groaned in frustration, “This is so stupid! Everything about that guy makes no sense! Him and Mabel have been on, like, five dates in the past few hours!” His arms were waving wildly as he was ranting. “That’s unnatural!” He brought his arms back down to his sides and began watching the video again. After a few seconds he fast forwarded the clip, “Soos is right.” He fast forwarded again. “I don’t have any real evidence.” Again, he fast forwarded. “I don’t have any real evidence. I guess I can be kind of paranoid sometimes, and…” There it was, Norman’s right hand fell clean off. “Wait! WHAT?!” I took the camera from him and rewound it.

“That’s definitely not normal,” I said, pressing play to watch the misleading evidence again. 

Dipper jumped up off of the couch in such a rush of energy that he knocked the couch back, he didn’t even realize it. Without looking away from the camera, I extended my left arm to steady the couch and set it back down. “I was right, oh my gosh!” He yelled.

He was about to run out of the room, to chase after them, but my voice made him stop. “Dipper, we need to be smart about this.” He calmed down and nodded. “I’ll go get the golf cart and you go warn Stan.” Apparently he had not calmed down one bit. He exited the room very quickly, almost running into the wall, yelling his grunkle’s name frantically.

Meet me out front!” I called after him. Swiftly, I made my way out of the shack through the gift shop remembering that Wendy should be returning from whatever she had been doing. To my relief, I was correct and I ran outside over to her. My rapid approach startled her a bit as she exited the golf cart. “Wendy!” I yelled, practically in her face.

“Dude, calm down, there’s no need to yell. I’m literally right in front of you,” She said with a slightly worried look. 

I completely disregarded her concern, I have been advancing the show's events like crazy this past day. Mabel could be in some serious trouble with those gnomes right now. “I need to borrow the golf cart so that I can save Mabel from a zombie!”

Wendy crossed her arms and gave me a look of amusement, “Try not to hit any pedestrians.” She tossed me the keys and walked away. I wasted no time. As soon as I was seated in the cart, I thrusted the keys into the ignition and started the engine. I shouldn’t be taking risks like this.  _ These characters are people now, if they are in real danger, I’m stepping in from now on.  _

Making my way around the shack to where Stan was giving a tour, I spotted Dipper in the group trying to get his great uncle’s attention. “Dipper!” I yelled, making him turn towards me. “Let’s go!” Stan had heard me as well and he locked his eyes with mine, he had to know that something is up. Dipper ran over to the cart and once he got in I was about to drive off, but I realized that Soos was right in front of us.

He stepped aside and pulled out a shovel, “This is for the zombies.”

“Thanks,” Dipper said, taking the weapon from him and setting it down by his feet.

Soos bent down and picked up a wooden bat and handed it to me, “And this is in case you see a pinata.” 

Dipper and I exchanged looks. “Thanks,” I added reluctantly. Now with the large man clear and out of the way, I floored the gas pedal. 

Once I pulled onto a path that led into the woods, Dipper turned and asked me, “Do you have any idea where they are?” Over the roar of the engine, I could barely hear him. 

I didn’t look at him, my eyes stayed on the windy dirt road ahead, “They didn’t close the door when they left, I saw them go this way.” The path started to straighten out, allowing me to look at Dipper. “We will find your sister, I promise.” Suddenly we heard a high pitched cry for help, my eyes darted back to the road. “Speaking of which.” I turned to the right where we heard Mabel’s call. Good thing too, if I kept going straight we would have gone right off a cliff. I kept following the road down hill and into a small grotto, there we saw gnomes jumping all over and around Mabel.

I drove Dipper and I to a close distance for a quick escape and we both hopped out.

“What the  _ heck  _ is going on here?!” Dipper asked, gripped the shovel for protection. A gnome stopped and hissed at us, startling him. So I decided to do what any rational person would do in that situation... I kicked it into the tree line. The other gnome’s attention was only on Mabel, so they were completely unaware of our approach. 

Mabel was having trouble fending off the gnomes by herself, “Guys! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they’re total jerks!” She began hitting them harder and one grabbed her brunette locks. “Uhh! Hair! Hair!” 

That’s it. I know that Dipper is about to try and reason with the red and blue little monsters, but that doesn’t matter. Now seeing that they were trying to tie her down, I acted on impulse. I ran over to her, which I’m pretty sure hurt because of my bruises, but I can’t tell because of the amount of adrenaline running through me. Jeff turned around and I picked him up, making him scream in terror. I threw him to where I kicked the other gnome, not my best idea. Actually scratch that, that was my  _ worst _ idea. The rest of Jeff's followers heard him scream over their heads, they looked at me with feral eyes. My face fell. “Oh boy.”

The group of gnomes all charged at me, but Mabel was now free. “Mabel! Get to the golf cart! I’ll be right behind you!” I yelled as I caught a gnome who jumped at my face. I knew that she didn’t want to leave me by myself, but she made her way to her brother, unharmed. Me on the other hand, is a different story. After I caught the first gnome, I threw him at a couple of his comrades, which surprisingly took them out. Another gnome jumped at me, but since my arms were already outstretched, I acted fast and brought both fists down on top of his head, sending him into the ground with a loud thud. 

The other gnomes halted their approach, they realized that they can’t take me on alone. I looked back to the twins, Dipper was examining his sister for any serious injuries and Mabel was watching me in awe. I turned back to the threat before me and found that they were still regrouping, this was our chance to retreat to the cart. I slowly backpedaled away from the angered gnomes and the twins started to do the same once I got closer to them. “On three we bolt to the cart,” I said to them quietly. They nodded in agreement, prompting me to start. “One…” The cart was a few yards away, but any sudden movements will get the gmones to charge again. “Two…” The gnomes started to notice our withdrawal. “Three!” All three of us turned and sprinted the final stretch to the cart, I could have said that more quietly but that wouldn’t matter anyway, the gnomes were already charging. 

The three of us successfully entered the golf cart and I took the wheel.  _ Screw seatbelts! There is going to be a mob of angry gnomes on us in a few seconds!  _ I shifted gears into reverse just as some of the gnomes jumped at us. Gaining momentum, I maneuvered our way out of the grotto backwards and once we reached the dirt path I quickly spun the wheel making us do a one hundred eighty degree turn. I quickly switched gears. “Gun it!” Mabel yelled, she didn’t need to tell me twice. Now that we were back on the path and gaining speed, I let out a breath I had no idea I was keeping in.

Dipper noticed that I wasn’t slowing down, “Matt, I think we lost them, you can let up on the gas.”

I shook my head, “Dipper while I was trying to find more about zombies earlier, I found out that gnomes are a lot more dangerous than they appear.” The cart rumbled fiercely, and it wasn’t because of some uneven terrain. The twins head slowly turned to look at the road behind and I continued speaking, eyes glued to the road ahead, “When the gnomes of the forest are assembled they can create-” A loud roar of terror cut me off. “...That.” 

“Dang,” Mabel said with her mouth wide open. I didn’t need to look back, I knew that a thirty foot creature of unimaginable horror was now hot on our heels. The twins by themselves in the show narrowly avoided being pounded to a pulp, but now with me in the cart and my extra weight, the cart can’t reach its maximum speed. Some gnomes were thrown at our golf cart, I heard them land on top of the roof. If they keep landing up there, we’ll be going slower and slower. I swerved and they fell off but now we had lost crucial speed. “Looks like my question is about to be answered,” I said under my breath. 

I let go of the steering wheel with my right hand and picked up the bat by my feet. Dipper sat next to me, his eyes glued to the gaining gnomes behind us. I was about to put my last worst idea to shame. “Dipper!” He’s attention snapped to me and his eyes widened even more when he realized that I was holding the bat.

He looked at me like I was insane, “What are you-”

“I need you to take the wheel!” I cut him off, he grabbed the steering wheel and I started to climb over the seat to get in the back. 

I was halfway over, Dipper’s foot was slammed on the pedal now and he looked back at me and yelled, “What are you doing?!” Mabel swerved the cart over to the right to avoid crashing because her brother was focused on me. 

His hazel eyes were filled with fear and I just smiled at him and said, “Something really stupid.” And with that I pulled the rest of my body into the back of the speeding cart. “Well this is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. You want these kids?” I stood up straight and hoisted the baseball bat as Jeff unleashed another barrage of gnomes upon us, “Then you’re going to have to get through me you giant conehead!” I swung at my attackers, knocking out some of their teeth in the process. However I wasn’t able to stop all of them, one got past and landed on the hood of the cart. I heard the gnome screech as it jumped at Dipper, flailing and scratching in random directions. Luckily, Mabel was there to punch the now latched gnome off of Dipper’s face. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the gnome with Dipper’s hat fly into the woods. 

Even after the attack, Dipper had been doing an exceptionally good job at keeping the cart steady for me to knock the airborne gnomes out of the way. Of course when my confidence was growing, it gets shut down. Jeff stopped and lifted a nearby pine tree clean out of the ground and chucked it like a javelin right at us. My eyes widened as I watched the tree sail, rather majestically, above us and then crash on the path ahead. 

I threw the bat at the giant gnome monster in a last ditch effort to slow it down, it just bounced right off with no effect. I turned, grabbed the cart as hard as I could with both hands and braced for Dipper’s next move. As I predicted, he swerved out of the way and lost all control. The shack was just ahead, we were so close. The cart started to tip over while we were still in motion and, despite my tight grip, I was flung off like a bull rider. Once my body made impact with the ground, I involuntarily slid on my face and to a halt.  _ Great, just when I was starting to feel better.  _

I raised my gaze to see the cart on its side with Dipper and Mabel slowly crawling away from it, at least they wore seatbelts. When they both got to their feet they ran over to help me stand, even though the gnome monster was coming closer. Dipper spotted the shovel that Soos had given him earlier, and once I was able to stand, he picked it up and aimed it at the gnomes.

“Stay back, man!” Dipper yelled as he threw the lawn tool at the advancing enemy. The giant monster just punched it into the ground with a loud roar, making Dipper and Mabel scream.

I stepped out in front of them and spread out my arms slightly to shield them.

Jeff laughed at my defensive position, “Look at you, bravely protecting these two children. To bad you actually can’t do anything, you’re only a dumb human!”

I squinted my eyes at the insult, Mabel was now holding onto my arm and Dipper was furiously searching through the journal for a solution to our predicament. “At least I don’t take squirrel baths to clean myself,” I sneered, making the gnomes gasp. 

“W-What no I don’t! Who told you about that?!” Jeff yelled, super flustered. “You know what, that doesn’t even matter! Mabel, marry us before we do something crazy!” 

Dipper flipped faster and faster through the journal’s pages, searching for something that we can do, “There’s got to be a way out of this.” 

Mbael stepped forward from behind me and said with a serious tone, “I gotta do it.” 

Dipper’s eyes flew to his sister and quickly pocketed the journal. “What!? Mabel, don’t do this! Are you crazy?” He was now right beside his sister, his voice frantic.

“Trust me,” was all that she said in response. 

Dipper looked at Mabel incredulously, “What?!”

“Dipper,” Mabel said in a whisper. “Just this once... _ Trust  _ me.” Seeing that his sister was being sincere, he backed away and stood behind me again. Mabel, once again, stepped forward, “All right Jeff, I’ll marry you.”

Jeff made the entire monster jump for joy. “Hot dog!” He started to climb down from the top of his colony, “Help me down there, Jason. Thanks. Andy, left foot, there we go, watch those fingers, Mike.” The head gnome exited through the monster’s foot and brought out a box containing quite a beautiful ring. He approached Mabel pointing to the ring’s jewel excitedly, “Ehh? Ehh?” Mabel knelt down and let Jeff place the ring on her finger. “Bada-bing, bada-bam!” Jeff said while doing a little victory dance. “Now let’s get you back into the forest, honey”

He was about to lead the way, but Mabel’s voice made him stop in his tracks, “You may now kiss the bride.” Dipper displayed a look of horror on his face and was about to intervene but I held him back. 

Jeff turned around and awkwardly said, “Well, uh, don’t mind if I do.” He closed his eyes, puckered his lips and Mabel reached into the leaves beside her.

I looked over my shoulder to Dipper, “Looks like her ‘kissing practice’ is about to pay off.” Clarity dawned over Dipper’s face and I turned back to face the two.

Mabel flicked on the leaf blower, and to everybody's surprise, except mine, started to suck Jeff into it. “Whoa! Whoa!” He said frightened. “W-What’s going on?” 

Despite his best effort, the little gnome could not escape the pull of the leaf blower. “That’s for lying to me!” Mabel yelled as Jeff got stuck in the machine. She then turned the leaf blower to full reverse power, squishing Jeff even more, yelling “That’s for breaking my heart!”

“Ow! My face!” He yelled. 

Mabel casually walked over to Dipper and I. She held the leaf blower up to me and I gladly took it while she aimed it towards the rest of the gnomes. “And this for messing with my brother!” She turned her head and looked at Dipper. “Wanna do the honors?”

Dipper placed his hand on the power dial and said, “On three.”

“One, two, three!” we all said in unison and Dipper switched the power to forward, sending Jeff flying out of the machine like a cannonball right through the monster’s chest. I held them both steady to ensure that we didn’t fall back. 

Jeff, extremely infuriated, yelled, “I’ll get you back for this!!!!” As he soared through the air back into the enchanted part of the forest. The gnomes now scattered and helpless without their leader, looked around very confused. Mabel then took the leaf blower from my grasp and started pushing the rest of the gnomes away.

“Anyone else want some?” I said with a cocky smirk and crossed arms. They all bolted like little chipmunks back into the forest, except for one who got stuck in some plastic rings and was about to become Gompers’ chew toy. The poor little gnome screamed as the goat carried him away in its mouth. 

All three of us were a mess. Leaves were bunched up in our hair, we had dirt all over us and multiple tears in our clothes. Dipper, wanting to go inside and wash up, made his way to the gift shop entrance but was stopped by his sister. “Hey, Dipper. I, um, I’m sorry for ignoring your advice. You really were just looking out for me.”

Dipper waved a hand through the air, “Oh, don’t be like that. You saved our butts back there.” I smiled at the sincerity of the twins' words. 

Mabel plucked a leaf out of her hair and threw it away, “I guess I’m just sad that my first boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes.”

“Look on the bright side,” Dipper started. “Maybe the next one  _ will _ be a vampire.”

Mabel gave a genuine laugh at her brother’s response and gave him a light punch to the arm, “You’re just saying that.”

Dipper outstretched his arms. “Awkward sibling hug?” He asked with a small voice crack almost making me laugh and ruin the sweet moment.

“Awkward sibling hug,” Mabel repeated and they both received each other with open arms.

“Pat pat,” They said in a monotone unison. 

I was about to walk past the two of them and into the shack but Mabel stopped me, “Matt, you’re not going anywhere!” With surprising strength, Mabel pulled me into the heartfelt exchange making Dipper laugh. I had no choice but to hug back with a big smile. 

When we entered the shack, we saw that Stan was now manning the register. Once the door was closed, we just stared at him other until he spoke up, “Sheesh! You guys get hit by a bus or somethin’?” Stan slammed his hand down on the desk, “Aha!” The twins wore very unamused faces and I crossed my arms.  _ Sure feels like I did!  _ Dipper and Mabel began to walk away from their great uncle. I softly cleared my throat so that only Stan would hear and gestured to his niece and nephew. “Uh, hey!” He said, grabbing their attention again. He rubbed the back of his head, “W-Wouldn’t you know it? Um, I accidentally overstacked some inventory, so, uh, how’s about each of you take one item from the gift shop on the house.”

Mabel turned and clasped her hands together, “Really?”

Dipper wasn’t convinced, “What’s the catch?”

Stan, now avoiding eye contact, responded, “The catch is do it before I change my mind. Now take something.” He hit the register next to him and started filing cash into it. The twins started browsing and I smiled at Stan’s hidden affection. “That means all of you.” Stan said, now looking at me. “Looks like ya did good today kid, all things considered.” 

My smile grew, “Wow, thanks Stan.” 

“Yup, anything for my grand nephew,” Stan said with a serious face and a wink.  _ Wait what.  _

Mabel turned to Stan and I with wide eyes, “We’re related?” 

Stan put a hand on my shoulder, “Yeah, we didn’t want to tell you guys earlier. It would have made things a little awkward if I told you when you first got here. Matt here will be staying with us as well, hope ya don’t mind.”

The twins were looking at me with big smiles, “Looks like we're going to be roommates. Heh, yay.” I eyed Stan and he gave me a smirk. It wasn’t a bad plan, telling them that I was another great nephew, but I feel like they might find out that I’m not at all related to them eventually. “I hope this doesn’t change anything between us.”

Dipper scoffed, “Dude, are you serious? Of course it won’t, especially after today!” Both twins came over to hug me again and I looked at Stan and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’ He gave me a thumbs up and went back to work. 

  
  


After a few seconds they pulled away and I asked, “Did you see anything you like?” Mabel quickly ran off to scour the shelves again and Dipper calmly walked over to the blue and white pine tree hats on a nearby shelf. He picked it up and placed it on top of his head. Dipper looked in the mirror next to him, “That oughta to do the trick!” I glanced over to Mabel who was peering into a box in the corner.

She reached in, “And I will have a…” She extravagantly held the item in the air. “Grappling hook! Yes!”

Stan and Dipper exchanged looks while I just smiled and shook my head. “Wouldn’t you rather have a doll or something?” Stan asked. 

Mabel displayed a serious face and shot her new obsession into the ceiling yelling, “Grappling hook!”

“Fair enough!” Stan said in response.

Now it was my turn to search for something, I didn’t want anything stupid, like one of those bobble heads. I want something cool. My interest peaked when my eyes laid upon a rock with a strange pattern on it. I know I said I wanted something cool, but this thing was calling to me, I can’t describe it. I picked the stone up and put it in my pocket.

A little while later Dipper, Mabel and I were in the attic bedroom, clean and in a fresh set of clothes. I was wearing clean gym clothes that I was taking home from school, a red t-shirt and black shorts. Dipper was wearing the same thing that he had on today minus the vest. He had multiple copies of the same outfit that he brought with him to Gravity Falls, probably thinks that he’s like Einstein or something. Mabel had a sweater with a floppy disc proudly displayed on the front of it. 

I was laying on my “bed” with my arms behind my head looking up at the ceiling. It was too early to go to sleep, so the three of us were trying to think of something to do. My eyes lit up with an idea, not an original idea, but an idea nonetheless. “What if you write in the journal about things that we encounter, Dipper. I think that would be pretty cool.” Since Dipper had pretty much no alone time so far with the book he was happy to do it. 

“How should I start it?” He asked, grabbing a pen and the journal off of the night stand above me. The next few hours were filled with conversation on what to include in the journal and Dipper had changed his introduction several times, he had changed the story of how we found the journal several times, and he changed his description of himself several times! He wasn’t being very honest with what he was writing at first, but Mabel and I pointed him in the right direction. He wrote about his birthmark and I was quite surprised when he willingly decided to tell me about it. He gave a description of Mabel and then me, which was actually more emotional than I thought it would be. I’m officially becoming a part of this town’s history. Next he went into detail about the whole adventure that we had today and even drew a picture of me kicking the gnome into the forest, which was very amusing. 

“‘This journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust. But when you battle a hundred gnomes side by side with your sister and someone you just met, you realize that they’ve probably always got your back.’” Dipper had been reading aloud what he had been including in his writing to the both of us. I nodded indicating my approval.

“Preach it, Dipping-Sauce!” Mabel yelled with excitement making me and Dipper laugh. 

“‘Grunkle Stan told us there was nothing strange about this town, but who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked?’”

I nodded again, “Solid, Dipper. Solid.” 

Dipper smiled, closed and set aside the journal, “I say that’s a good place to leave it for now.” He turned to his sister, “Hey Mabel can you get the light?”

She pulled out her grappling gun and cocked it, “I’m on it.” She took aim and fired it at the electric lantern illuminating the room and pulled the trigger. While it did take out the light, it made a hole in the window behind it making the three of us laugh.  _ I wonder how many times that glass will break this summer.  _

I closed my eyes and gave a happy sigh, “Good night you knuckleheads.” Sure these kids might be from a show, but now, they’re living, breathing human beings that  _ I  _ am responsible for.

**A**


	4. Legend of the Gobblewonker

It has now been a couple of days since the whole gnome incident and things have been relatively calm. My wounds and bruises were healing well, Dipper and I bonded some more, Stan got us put in jail for a little bit and Mabel learned how to use telekinesis. So you know, just another day in good old Gravity Falls. Mabel was trying to do the iconic “Crush a spoon with your mind” thing and it worked, kind of. Instead of crushing the spoon, I could only watch as the couch that Stan was occupying got lifted up off the ground while he was asleep. But yeah, besides that and the counterfeit cash thing, the past couple of days have been normal. Of course that wouldn’t be the case for long. 

This morning, I walked into the kitchen and smiled at the sight before me. Dipper and Mabel were both holding bottles with dripping syrup coming from them. “Go! Go! Go!” Dipper chanted with an outstretched tongue.

Mabel was in the same position, “Almost… Almost…” She then hit the butt of the bottle forcefully causing the drop to fall quicker than her brother’s “Yes!” She exclaimed in victory and began coughing uncontrollably. “I won!” She said in a strained voice and began coughing again. 

Dipper held an unamused look and then noticed that I was now present and gave a smile. “Hey, Matt. Sorry we didn’t wake you up.”

I waved a hand at him dismissively, “Ah, don’t worry about it, I’m not that hungry anyway.” Today, I was proudly wearing my new question mark t-shirt, it fit perfectly. Dipper began reading a magazine and grabbed my attention. 

“Ho ho, no way! Hey guys check this out,” Dipper said flipping the article so we could see.

Mabel squinted her eyes, “Human-sized hamster ball?” She then gasped “ _ I’m  _ human-sized!”

“Oh yeah,” I said while pulling out a chair. “You would definitely fit in that thing.” 

Dipper shook his head, “No, no, Mabel. This.” He pointed to one of the opened pages with an outstretched finger that said ‘Monster Photo contest’ and it showed a very obvious fake hairy gremlin. “We see weirder stuff than that every day,” He concluded. However, one thing was off. Instead of one thousand dollars as the grand prize, it was five thousand.  _ Huh that’s weird.  _

“We didn’t get any pictures of those gnomes, did we?” Dipper asked, looking back and forth between us. 

I crossed my arms, “Nope, just memories.”

“And this beard hair,” Mabel said nonchalantly, taking a clump of white hair out of nowhere. She stretched her arm across the table and into her brother's face with an innocent smile.

“Why did you-” Dipper started, but as soon as I fully realized what was in Mabel’s hand I reached out and took it from her. 

“I’m taking this from you for your own good,” I said with a stern expression and Mabel gave an ‘aww’ in reply which actually made me feel a little bad, but it’s for the best she doesn’t hang onto it. She might somehow poison Grunkle Stan with it or something, who knows! Speaking of which…

“Uhh! Good Morning, knuckleheads,” Stan said walking in with a rolled up newspaper and with a surprising smile on his face. “You three know what day it is?” He asked with a hopeful tone. 

The twins looked at one another. “Um… Happy anniversary?” Dipper asked.

“Mazel tov!” Mabel responded cheerily.

Stan brought down his rolled up newspaper over Dipper’s head, but I intercepted it with one hand and shook my head without even looking at him. “Baah! You’re no fun,” Stan said, slightly annoyed and I just shrugged in response while Dipper gave me a grateful look. “It’s family fun day!” Stan turned and opened the fridge behind him. ‘We're cuttin’ off work and having one of those ya know,” He paused to sniff some expired milk. “Bonding type-deals.”

“Um Stan, is this going to be remotely close to a family day, or is it going to be like our last,” I gave him air quotes. “‘Bonding' day?” 

Mabel shivered, “The county jail was so cold.”

I crossed my arms again with a mocking tone, “Yeah not my definition of ‘fun’ oh sweet grunkle of mine.” 

“All right, maybe I haven’t been the best summer caretaker,” Stan said with the smallest hint of sincerity in his voice. 

“You can say that again,” I said under my breath, earning a snicker from Mabel. 

Stan walked over to us and put his hands on our shoulders. Why did I let the profesional con man do that? I don’t rightfully know. “I swear,” Stan started. “Today we’re gonna have some  _ real  _ family fun. Now, who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car?” 

The twins both raised their arms in the air and yelled, “Yay!”

I just facepalmed, “Seriously?” The twins didn’t say anything like I had expected them to, they quickly stood up and ran out of the room with excitement. I followed them reluctantly, but only after I tossed the gnome hair in the garbage.  _ Cue the theme song I guess.  _

We were now all seated in the car speeding down one of the backroads of Gravity Falls, actually speeding is an understatement.  _ Flying _ better fits our situation. I watched in the rearview mirror as Dipper and Mabel bounced violently in the backseat and were, to my dismay, wearing blindfolds. 

Stan reached down to tune his radio, making the car swerve. “Blindfolds never lead to anything good,” Dipper said with a sigh. I slapped Stan’s hand away from the radio and he rolled his eyes at me.

“Wow I feel like all my other senses are heightened.” I glanced back in the mirror to see Mabel blindly examining her hands, and I couldn’t help but smirk at this. While her brother was super tense and desperately holding his legs to his body, Mabel was joking around without a care in the world. With outstretched hands, she turned to Dipper and began rubbing them on his face.”I can see with my fingers,” She whispered, making her brother loosen up and laugh. I would have laughed too, if the car hadn’t gone airborne again.

I threw my hands in the air and looked at Stan who was casually looking out the window, “For goodness sake Stan, keep your eyes on the road!” 

Dipper was tense again. “Grunkle Stan, are  _ you  _ wearing a blindfold?” He whimpered. 

Stan turned, took his right hand of the wheel and rested on the back of his seat to look at his nephew. “Ha! Ha! Nah, but with these cataracts, I might as well be,” He said completely carefree. I sighed in relief as his eyes drifted back to the road… only to be distracted by something in the sky. “What is that, a woodpecker?” I braced myself in the passenger seat as we broke through a wooden guardrail, making the kids scream. 

After our little mistrip into the woods on the side of the road, we arrived at Gravity Falls Lake with little interruption. This is because I did not take my hands off the steering wheel while the car was in motion to ensure our safety. Once we were safely parked, I helped guide the kids out of the car while Stan changed into his fishing gear that he took out of the trunk. 

“Okay, okay, open ‘em up,” Stan said once he was situated. I stood behind the Pines twins as they took off their blindfolds. They squinted at the bright sunlight that had been denied to them for so long. Stan had one foot propped up on his tackle box while both of his arms were spread out wide like an eagle. “Ta-da! It’s fishin’ season!” He exclaimed, making me remember that he was really looking forward to this. I couldn’t blame him, I enjoy fishing too. 

“Fishing?” Mabel asked curiously.

“What are you playing at, old-man?” Dipper said with a pointed finger. 

“You’re gonna love it!” Stan said, turning around to face the lake behind him. “The whole town’s out here!” It was true, I saw a bunch of recognizable Gravity Falls residents enjoying themselves. I couldn’t help raising my arm above my head to punch the sky as the Corduroy boys excitedly cheered and chanted for their dad. Luckily no one noticed. 

Stan placed his hands on his hips, “That’s some quality family bonding!”

“Grunkle Stan,” Dipper started as he crossed his arms. “Why do you want to bond with us all of a sudden?”

Stan turned back to face us and started to walk over. “Come on, this is gonna be great! I’ve never had fishin’ buddies before. The guys from the lodge wont go with me. They don't  _ like  _ or  _ trust  _ me,” He said with very extravagant finger quotes.

Mabel then looked at me and Dipper. “I think he actually wants to fish with us,” She said, in a surprised tone. 

“Hey, I know what’ll cheer you sad sacks up,” Stan said reaching behind his back. “Pow!” He placed fishermen hats very similar to his own on Dipper and Mabel’s heads. Stan then cleared his throat. “Whoops sorry Matt,” He apologized reaching into his fishing vest to pull out a hat for me. “Only got two hands ya know,” He said as he threw me the hat.

The three of us examined our new gifts. “Pine’s family fishing hats,” Stan exclaimed proudly. Dipper and Mabel looked at theirs with a good deal of disinterest while I could not help but smile at mine. Stan had somehow managed to flip the first ‘t’ in ‘Matt’ upside down, which, in my opinion, makes it even better. “That’s hand stitching, ya know,” Stan added with a bit of reluctance. “It’s just gonna be you, me, and those goofy hats on a boat for ten hours!”

“Ten hours!” Dipper yelled with bulging eyes. 

“I brought the joke book,” Stan said tauntingly, pulling the book out of his pocket.

“No. No!” Dipper exclaimed in horror.

“Yeah, Stan,” I said, grabbing his attention. “While I would love to go fishing with you, I think ten hours is a bit extreme. I only have so much sunscreen after all.” I rubbed my left arm to prove my point. 

“Grunkle Stan, is there something else that we can do?” Mabel asked sincerely.

“I SEEN IT! I SEEN IT AGAIN!,” A loud voice yelled from a dock nearby.

“Oh boy,” I said under my breath with an eye roll. While I did say a few days ago that I was stoked to go on all the adventures that the Pines go on, I was kinda hoping that this one wouldn’t happen. Despite all of the old-man antics, Stan has been pretty fun to be around and I didn’t want to ditch him for the fake Gobblewonker. I saw how upset he got when the kids ditched him, I don’t want to see it in person. 

McGucket ran off of the dock and started throwing fishing poles and flipping tables, even knocking a sandwich out of a poor guy's hand. “The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scramdoodles away!” Then he did the most frantic jig I’ve ever seen. 

During all the comotion Dipper, Mabel, Stan and I made our way over to see what all the ruckus was about. 

“Aw,” Mabel started with an outstretched hand, “He's doing a happy jig.”

“No!!!” McGucket yelled, grabbing Mabel’s shoulder. I quickly noticed how uncomfortable the old prospector made her. I stepped between the two with an outstretched arm for the twins to hide behind, which they accepted gratefully. I squinted at the old man making him back off, but he continued to yell. “It’s a jig of grave danger!”

“Hey! Hey!” A voice from behind us yelled. A man was exiting the fishing lodge with a spray bottle making McGucket scream and cover his face. Even though he clearly submitted, the man sprayed McGucket with the bottle making me frown. “Now what did I tell you about scaring my customers?” The man yelled, “This is your last warning dad!” 

“But I’ve got proof this time, by gummity!” McGucket yelled, making his son stop squirting him. He quickly led the surrounding crowd of people on the dock pointing at a destroyed boat. “Behold!” McGucket exclaimed. “It’s the gobblywonker that what done did it! It had a long neck like a gee-raffe. And wrinkly skin like- like this gentleman right here.” Everyone’s attention went to Stan who was picking his ear.

“Huh?” He asked, turning to face him while wiping the now cleared ear wax on his pants. 

“It chopped my boat up to smitheroons!” McGucket proclaimed with hands raised in the air. “It shim-shammed over to Scuttlebutt island!” Now the old man was pointing to the eerie looking island shrouded by fog out in the distance. “Ya gotta believe me!!!” He shrieked frantically. 

At this point all the comotion had attracted the attention of the police, who had now arrived in their own boat with its lights flashing. Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland looked at McGucket with a bored expression. “Attention all units,” Blubs started as Durland shook his head. “We got ourselves a crazy old man.” Everyone on the dock except us Pines,  _ ahem _ , sorry, the Pines and  _ I _ , just stood there awkwardly.

“Aw donkey spittle! Banjo Polish…” He said as he walked away with his head hung low. Despite all the trouble he had caused, I found myself feeling bad for McGucket. It wasn’t his fault that he was like this and it wasn’t his fault that he wanted attention. I shook my head, not at the old prospector, but at the rude people still laughing at the old man. 

“Well that happened,” Stan said matter of factly, “Now let’s untie this boat and get out on that lake.” Stan beant down and started to untie the boat from the dock as Mabel and Dipper dived into their own conversation. 

“Hey Stan,” I asked as he climbed into the Stan o’ War. “I can tell that this fishing trip really means a lot to you, but is there any chance that we could do something else that doesn’t involve us sitting in a rickety old boat for ten hours?” Stan’s face fell at my request. “Don’t get me wrong,” I said frantically trying to fix the situation. “I would like to go fishing with you and all, but I think we should do it another day.” I could tell that Stan was seeing where I was coming from and just when he was about to respond Dipper leaned down and put an arm around his grunkle’s shoulder. 

“Grunkle Stan!” Dipper said in an over friendly manner. “Change of plans. We’re taking that boat to Scuttlebut Island and we’re gonna find that Gobblewonker.” He stood back up and chanted with his sister. “Monster hunt! Monster hunt! Monster-” They stopped the chanting to eye McGucket who made his way back over to the dock and began chanting as well. 

“I’ll go,” He said sadly once he realized that no one was chanting anymore. Then a loud boat horn went off making me and Stan jump. I was startled because it came with no warning, Stan must’ve been scared because he thought the cops were coming back for him. 

The person at the helm of the new boat was revealed to be Soos. “You dudes say somethin’ about a monster hunt?” He asked, making Dipper and Mabel smile. As much as I love Soos, and trust me I do, I was a little upset that he showed up. Now the twins were one-hundred percent going to ditch Stan.

“Soos!” Mabel said happily. 

“What’s up, hambone,” Soos asked, giving Mabel a fist bump. “Dude, you could totally use my boat for your hunt. It’s got a steering wheel, chairs- normal boat stuff.”

I looked over at Stan’s boat and cracked a smile. It had neither of those ‘Normal Boat Things’ and Stan knew that too.

“All right, let’s think this through,” Stan said, climbing out of his boat and onto the dock. I really wanted to go on this monster hunt with the twins and Soos, but I couldn’t bring myself to ditch Stan. He’ll end up talking to his reflection or something, probably treating it like his brother.  _ I can’t just leave him!  _ Within that split second I had an idea.  _ Maybe I won’t have to.  _ “You kids  _ could  _ go waste time on some epic monster-finding adventure, _ or  _ you could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer worms with your Great Uncle Stan!” Stan finished.

“ _ Or... _ Our Great Uncle Stan could come with us,” I said while crossing my arms. 

“Pardon me.” Stan asked.

“You heard me,” I said squinting at him with a smile. “Why don’t you just come with us. You did say yourself that you wanted to have ‘some real family fun’ earlier.  _ Or  _ are you too chicken to join us?” I added. “Afraid that some big monster is going to get you?”

I turned to look at my friends, Soos looked shocked by the way I was talking to his boss and Dipper and Mabel could hardly contain their laughter. 

“So that’s how it's gonna be kid?” Stan asked and I nodded in response. 

I started to walk over to the boat but I held my eye contact with Stan and said, “You said that you wanted to go fishing, so let’s go catch the biggest fish there is.” I helped Dipper and Mabel climb into the boat and then I stepped in myself. “I bet the boys at the lodge would kill to fish with the guy that caught the Gobblewonker.” That took the cake. Within seconds Stan tied up his own boat, and he smiled as I put on the fishing hat that he gave to me once he joined us. 

“Let’s go catch us a Gobblewonker!” Stan declared cheerfully. And with that, we set sail out into the lake.

_ He’s going to be mad once we don’t actually catch the thing, but I’ll deal with that thought later.  _

Dipper made his way to the bow of the ship and set his foot on the railing and looked back at us. “Hoist the anchor!” He called to us, which Soos was already doing, that’s how we started moving anyway. “Raise the flag!” Mabel complied and held a towel flowing in the wind. This wasn’t much of a flag, so I set her on my shoulders and she cheered and held the towel higher.

“We’re gonna find that Gobblewonker!” Mabel exclaimed.

“We’re gonna win that photo contest!” Dipper yelled. 

“Do any of you dudes have sunscreen?” Soos asked and Stan’s face fell as he forgot to give the twins some.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the requested item with Mabel still on my shoulders. “I got some right here, dude,” I said tossing it to Soos. 

“Yay!” The twins and Soos cheered while Stan nodded in approval. 

A few minutes later, everyone had a sufficient amount of sunscreen applied and we were stopped just before the heavy mist around the island. The five of us gathered in the back of the boat as Dipper began to speak. “If we’re gonna win that photo contest we’ve gotta do it right,” Dipper stated.

“Why do I keep hearing about this contest?” Stan asked. “Unless the prize is money, I’m not interested.” Stan crossed his arms.

“The grand prize is five thousand dollars, but I guess we can split it four was if you're not interested, Grunkle Stan,” Dipper said with a smug look. 

Stan’s eyes lit up. “Were you not listening kid?” Stan asked with excitement. “I’m one hundred precent on board with this now that money is involved!”

Dipper rolled his eyes at his great uncle. “As I said, we need to do it right,” Dipper started. “Think. What’s the number one problem with most monster hunts?” 

“If you’re a side character you die within the first five minutes of the movie,” Soos answered. “Dude, am I a side character?” He asked frantically. “Do you ever think about stuff like that?”

I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Soos, you’re too great to be a side character,” I stated, calming his nerves.

“No, no, no. Camera trouble,” Dipper said while waving his hands. “Say bigfoot shows up. Soos, be bigfoot.” The large man child proceeded to do an impeccable impression of the creature. “There he is! Bigfoot!!” Dipper exclaimed in a monotone voice and proceeded to pat himself down. “Uh-oh! No camera! Oh wait! Here’s one! Ah, no film. Ya see? Ya see what I’m doing here?” We all nodded. ‘That’s why I brought twenty-five disposable cameras!” 

I couldn’t help but scoff at this. I was about to speak up and say that we could just use my phone, which was conveniently sitting in my pocket. Although it was an easy solution to Dipper’s problem, I didn’t voice it. I looked over to Stan, who seemed to be amused by his grand nephew's paranoia. Stan hasn’t seen me use my phone at all yet, which, now that I think about it, is a  _ very _ good thing. If he found out I had a phone, he would realize that I had a way to get home this entire time. Or at least that’s how it would be in his eyes. In reality, it wouldn’t be that simple since, ya know, I’m from another reality. The phone that rested in my pocket suddenly felt like it had a lot more weight to it, one screw up with it and I’d be done.

I was shaken from my thoughts when Dipper handed me a bag with four of the disposable cameras in it. I took it and realized that Dipper was upset, probably because when I was thinking about the phone situation, the whole crisis with the cameras began.

“What about co-captain,” I heard Mabel ask.

“There’s no such thing as co-captain,” Dipper stated matter of factly.

“Uh, whoops,” Mabel said as she tossed a camera into the water. 

“Okay, fine!” Dipper yelled with a voice crack making Stan laugh, “You can be co-captain!”

“What about me?” I asked.

Mabel walked over to me. “As co-captain, I require you as my lookout post.”

I stared at her for a second. “Fair enough.”

“Yes!” She exclaimed as I hoisted her up on my shoulders once more. 

We made our way into the fog that surrounded the island. Stan was ‘chumming’ the water with the fish food that Soos had for some reason, while the big man himself steered us clear of rocks and other debris. As for me, I stood at the bow of the boat holding Mabel steady while she surveyed the area around us while making radar tower noises. This was quite entertaining at first, but after a while it got annoying. Suddenly she started beeping really really fast, and through the fog I could see land. “We’re here!” Mabel said cheerfully as Soos slowed us down.

“Oh, thank god,” Stan said while setting aside the fish food. “She stopped.” I set Mabel down and we hopped off of the boat and onto the beach of Scuttlebutt Island. 

“Hamster ball, here we come!” Mabel exclaimed. Dipper held out a lantern and led the rest of us deeper inland. Stan was lacking towards the back of the group with a look on his face that concerned me. I fell behind to talk to him.

“Is there something wrong Stan?” I asked, now walking right next to him. “You’re being uncharacteristically quiet.”  _ That was a great choice of words.  _

Stan waved me off, “Yeah, I’m fine, kid.” I shrugged and began to pick up the pace to catch up with the others but then Stan grabbed my arm, realizing that he could voice his concerns without being heard by the rest of the group. “It’s just that I can’t believe you dragged me into this. Now when we find out that the old prospector was telling the truth and that there really is a monster in this lake, I can’t hide the supernatural from them anymore.”

I didn’t respond for a second, realizing that I didn’t think that part through.  _ There goes that plot point.  _ “Well to be fair Stan, me and the kids fought an army of gnomes on their first day here. They’ve  _ known  _ that this stuff exists.” Stan just looked at me as I continued. “I think that it would be better for their great uncle to be open with them instead of denying that the supernatural exists. That way, one of them doesn’t do something stupid trying to prove that it is real.”

Stan looked forward at his niece and nephew and processed what I said to him. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” We walked up to Soos and Mabel while Soos covered up part of a sign. 

“Butt Island,” Soos said while trying not to laugh. 

“Soos, you rapscallion!” Mabel said overdramatically. 

Realizing that we didn’t miss anything important, Stan pulled me aside once more. “Should I tell them now and get it over with?” He asked me in a nervous tone.

I shook my head. “I don’t think now is the best time, but when the opportunity presents itself to be open, don’t pass it up.” Then, an ominous roar made its presence known to us. This made the twins halt whatever shenanigans they were up to and gaze around at the surrounding mist with fearful eyes. Stan looked concerned as well as we walked over to join them.

“Dude, did you guys hear that?” Soos asked.

“Kinda sounded like a chainsaw,” I answered.

“Was it your stomach?” Mabel asked Soos.

Soos shook his head. “No, my stomach usually sounds like whale noises,” He replied, letting Mabel press her ear to his belly. I looked at them with amusement, but the rustling of some nearby bushes grabbed my attention. A possum suddenly bolted out of the bush straight for the lantern that was lying by Dipper’s foot. 

“Dipper!” I yelled, making him quickly look at me. “The lantern!” Now believe me, I understand that we are supposed to lose that lantern, but knowing how hard it will be to see without it, I’m not willing to let it go. 

Dipper tried to make a grab for it before the small mammal got a hold of it, but he was too late. “Our lantern!” Dipper gasped as the little critter made a run for it, holding the item desperately in its mouth. “Gah! I can’t see anything,” Dipper said, raising a hand to his head to hopefully improve his sight.  _ Like that's gonna do anything. _ The fog and mist quickly swallowed our group making it impossible to see clearly. This misfortune, substantially added to the already creepy vibe that was kicking hard. 

“Dude, I don’t know, man,” Soos said nervously. “Maybe this isn’t worth it.” Stan nodded in agreement, even with money in the line, he didn’t want to admit to the supernatural. 

“I shudda, stayed on the ‘Stan o War,’” Stan said with a sigh and a quick look around at his surroundings.  _ Maybe bringing him along was a bad idea after all.  _

“How could it not be worth it Soos?!” Dipper asked. “Five-thousand dollars is on the line, man!” Dipper shared a quick look at his sister and she threw her arms up in the air. 

“I’m in!” She yelled with excitement. 

“Me too!” Dipper replied. The twins then proceeded to recklessly run further down the faint path that we were following. 

Soos stood there for a moment before quickly following them into the fog. “Alright, dudes, I’m comin!” I gestured Stan to come along, which he did so reluctantly. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Stan really should not have gone on this adventure. There was a reason that he stayed behind in the show, and I completely ignored it.  _ Maybe he’s nervous because his brother studied stuff like this. That is the reason why he got sucked up into the portal anyway.  _ Stan was only here because I called him out and appealed to the insecurity that he had about having no fishing buddies.  _ I guess the real lake monster really is me,  _ I thought, remembering that’s what Soos said to the twins after they realized that they had ditched their grunkle for nothing during this episode. I know that it wasn’t directed towards me or even spoken yet, but... it still fit. 

Stan and I had to pick up the pace in order to reach Soos and the twins. Once we caught up we saw Soos beatboxing to Mabel’s absolute  _ fire _ rap that she was spitting out.  _ Gotta give her props for coming up with that on the spot.  _ Dipper was ahead of both of them with a camera ignoring them and surveying the surrounding area. “Guys! Guys, guys,” Dipper whisper yelled. This made Soos and Mabel, along with Stan and I, stop and listen. “You hear that?’ Dipper asked as the echo of another growl rolled through the forest. In response to the roar, a large group of birds frantically flew away from a nearby tree. 

“This is it!” Dipper gasped. “This is it!” Mabel stepped forward and started to lightly punch her brother’s arm. Soon Dipper did the same and they both started making sounds of excitement. I looked to Soos who bent down to pick up a sharp, thick stick and then to Stan who pulled a single brass knuckle from his vest pocket. Realizing how under prepared I was, I lifted a large rock off the ground and held it to my chest. Soos then fixed his cap and the three of us followed. The fog grew denser and more thick as we reached the opposite end of the island, and through the mist was the unmistakable figure of the Gobblewonker. Of course it wasn’t really the real one, but it was still bone chilling to look at. I could have sworn that the tail moved but it must have been the wind.

The five of us took cover behind a fallen log and we soon peeked over to get a better view. Once the figure was in our sight again, I realized that it was much larger than the one in the show and I squinted in curiosity and the fog slightly cleared up. I was able to make out more of the figure and my heart dropped. The creature had green skin and scales all across its large body, with two frills dominating the monster’s back and neck. Scars covered the monster’s face and one of its tusk-like teeth was broken, making it less sharp but still menacing. I could feel my breathing accelerate, this wasn’t the wooden boat the figure was revealed to be in the show. This was the Gobblewonker, the  _ real  _ Gobblewonker. 

“Everyone… get your cameras ready,” Dipper commanded as he readied his own. Soos dropped his spiked stick and took out one of his cameras, Mabel did the same. Stan and I just sat there with wide eyes. “Ready? Go!” Dipper yelled. Dipper’s abrupt yell that shattered the silence in the area and made the monster quickly turn its head in our direction. Despite the danger before him, Soos ran out behind cover and started spamming pictures with his camera. He was yelling and the flash from his camera irritated the monster, making it swiftly retreat under the water. 

I let out a breath of relief realizing that the danger was no longer present and I ran over to Soos. “What the heck Soos!” I yelled once I reached him. “You can’t just run right at him!”

The large man child looked to the ground and rubbed the back of his neck. “Heh, sorry dude. I guess I scared him off didn’t I?” Soos replied, not sensing my real concern.

I looked at him in disbelief. “What! No!” I continued. “Well, yeah you did scare him off, but that’s not what I’m talking about!” Soos looked at me with confusion. “That thing could have taken your head off! You saw how big it was!” I didn’t notice the large shadow in the water approaching. “Next time just be more careful, dude.That’s what I’m concerned about, not the stupid monster.” The water behind us suddenly splashed violently, making me and Soos turn around to face the angered monster. It’s bright yellow eyes burning into our souls “Shi-” I started, but was then drowned out by the mighty roar of the monster. That was a clear warning, he was  _ not  _ happy. I booked it with Soos in tow. 

Now running for our lives, the five of us went straight for the boat with the Gobblewonker hot on our heels. Since this thing was mostly a marine freak of nature, it had a tough time chasing us to the boat. The monster made several desperate grabs with its giant mouth for us, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the sheer weight this thing had was flattening trees. Dipper had to tackle his sister to the ground in order to dodge a falling tree and just barely had enough time to recover and continue running. My heart has never beaten this fast.

The boat was within sight and it looked like we were all going to make it, but looks can be deceiving. I was the last one in the group, since everyone else got a head start and Soos ran ahead of me with surprising speed, so I was the only target. With one clean motion, the Gobblewonker’s head swept down, chomped and bit down on the back of my question mark shirt, mere millimeters from my skin. At first I thought I was fine, but my mood changed as I was raised into the air by the monster because of the hold it had on my shirt. I looked over my shoulder to see the two fierce yellow eyes glaring back at me. 

And then the thing opened its mouth. 

If you have been paying any attention, you would be able to guess that I am now very high up in the air and you would be correct. Out of pure instinct, I grabbed hold of one of the large tusks so I wouldn’t fall and was now dangling from the creature’s mouth. The Gobblewonker began to thrash violently so I would release my unwelcome hold on it’s already damaged tooth. Not being able to hold on any longer, I was thrown hard into the now nearby lake water. When I emerged with a large gasp for air I saw the boat speeding towards me.

Stan was leaning off of the starboard side with one arm reaching towards the water. “I got ya, kid!” He yelled once the boat was closer. Due to my shock of what just happened, I was having trouble staying afloat.  _ Probably should have taken a life jacket.  _ I made a grab for Stan’s hand and was relieved that he caught hold of me. Stan was having a hard time pulling me out of the water with just the use of one arm, so I pulled my other arm out of the water for him to grab. With a mighty grunt he pulled me onboard and we both sprawled out on the deck. 

I closed my eyes once I knew I was safe.“Thanks,” I said in no more than a whisper, the image of the Gobblewoner’s eyes still fresh in my mind. I shakily stood up and helped pull Stan to his feet, only for us to almost get knocked down by the force of a wave that the Gobblewonker created after it tried to bite the boat. “Try and lose it!” I yelled to Soos. He nodded and went for a lap around the island that we had just escaped from. 

He must have not been paying much attention because a big group of beavers on some boat wreckage was just ahead. “Soos! Beavers!” Dipper yelled as he realized where we were heading, but it was too late. We all braced ourselves as we smashed through the wreckage, making beavers rain from the sky. Most of them landed on the boat and started chomping in protest at the destruction of their home. They were on my shoulders, Mabel’s arms, Dipper’s head and on Soos’s face. 

“Why do animal’s hate my clothes!” I yelled as the beavers on me started to tear at my shirt fabric.  _ Great, another article of clothing ruined.  _ Stan quickly punched the beavers off of me, since he was spared the delight of having any on him. 

Soos had somehow managed to get the beaver that was latched to his face off of him. With his now regained sight he exclaimed, “AHH! BEAVER WITH A CHAINSAW!” I turned around and sure enough there was the little gremlin with a small but still  _ very  _ dangerous chainsaw in its mouth.

Since Soos had been temporarily blinded, Mabel was now in control of the boat. She made a swerve to try and dodge an attack from the Gobblewonker. This action made everyone on the boat, including the beaver with a chainsaw, lose their balance. Dipper saw the opportunity and threw the confused beaver off of the boat. The chainsaw now rested against the back wall of the boat. With the last of the beavers gone, Mabel now increased the boat’s speed to its maximum, and wouldn’t ya know it, we were actually losing the Gobblewonker. Slowly the beast submerged itself in the water as we got further and further away.

“Yes! We lost it!” Dipper exclaimed with a small sigh of relief. I wasn’t so sure. Nothing is ever that easy,  _ especially _ in Gravity Falls.

Stan sat down on the deck as the boat started to slow. “My heart hasn’t beaten this fast since that self entitled mother almost called the cops on me during a tour,” He said weakly while clenching his chest. I couldn’t help but scoff at that remark.

The lake was oddly quiet now with the monster submerged in the depths of the water.  _ Why did the Gobblewonker retreat? It could have easily caught up to us and there is no way we intimidated it so why did-  _ My eyes bulged in sudden realization. “Soos! Get us out of here!” I yelled, making the other four occupants of the boat look at me with confusion.  _ You can call me paranoid, but in my mind the only thing that would make the Gobblewonker run off like that is  _ **_another_ ** _ Gobblewonker.  _

My gaze flew over the side of the boat to see a series of rapidly approaching bubbles that confirmed my suspicion. My body jolted forward just before I yelled again, we were moving again, but nowhere near the speed we needed to be at. “The Monster is gone, dude. There’s nothing on the fish sonar.” Soos said at the helm, making me glance at it for myself. He was right, there was nothing. “I don’t know why you're still freaking out.” I wanted to believe him, I really did, but I knew that those sonars pick up living organisms... not machines. Plus the sonar was completely empty, showing no fish at all, indicating that they were scared off by a dangerous presence. 

I looked to Soos and crossed my arms. There was a large splash and then the entire boat was covered in a dark shadow. “Oh really,” I started with a lack of tone in my voice, “What’s that then?” I didn’t even turn around, I already knew what was there. 

We were at cruising speed, but Soos quickly gunned it, making it hard for Stan to stand up. “Remind me to never doubt you again, dude,” Soos said with wide eyes that were now glued to the water ahead. 

The robotic Gobblewonker that McGucket had created was now hot on our heels. “There are two of them!” Stan exclaimed worriedly. “Why are there two of them!?” No one cared to answer him. Our bodies were now pumping the all to familiar adrenaline once more. With a lack of other options, Soos had no choice but to steer us through a large group of boats to avoid the robot. The mechanical beast submerged itself under the water to avoid detection from the surrounding fishers, but held its head just before the surface to make a bulge in the water without breaking its surface tension. While Soos was trying desperately to dodge and weave between the innocent bystanders, the ‘Gobblewonker’ went right under them to get to us, sending people flying out of their boats.

Realizing that there was a lack of boats in our immediate area, McGucket brought the monster’s head out of the water to attack us. Instead of going for a bite, the monster swiped at our boat with its head supported by its long neck. Soos reacted quickly and swerved the boat out of the way and I braced knowing that the second swipe would not miss. 

But to my surprise, it did.

That instantly threw me off, it seemed like things were back on track to how the events were in the show, but now something was wrong. McGucket was now chasing us instead of the real Gobblewonker, we got all the beavers off the boat, Soos is driving the boat- I facepalmed at my realization.  _ Mabel _ was the one that was supposed to be driving, instead it was Soos and his experience with the vessel must have been the reason why we didn’t get hit. 

I looked forward, we were speeding right at a waterfall. The cliff faces encasing the lake were becoming more and more narrow, offering little hope of escape. “Oh dude! Where do I go?” Soos asked frantically. 

I stepped in between Dipper and Stan so the old man couldn’t see his great nephew take out the third journal. “Um-Uh-” Dipper started quickly flipping through the journal, “Go into the falls! I think there might be a cave behind there!” 

“‘Might be!’’ Mabel yelled repeating her brother’s words. Everyone began to scream except for me as I held onto the boat so I wouldn’t be forcefully flung onto the cave floor. We crashed through the waterfall…

But there was no cave.

Instead, there was a small little bank of sand that halted the motion of the boat entirely just before the large rock wall behind the falls. Since I was the only one that braced, I was the only one who remained on the boat. With a groan, I brought my gaze over the railing of the boat to see Dipper, Mabel and Soos all sprawled out on the sand. Stan had landed on top of Soos, cushioning his impact. The roar of the falls above us was so deafening that I couldn’t even hear my feet land on the shore after I jumped off the boat. 

Everyone was spread out a fair amount, Dipper and Mabel were to my left and Soos and Stan were on my right. No way Stan could be hurt after landing on a guy like Soos, so I made my way to Dipper and Mabel.  _ What just happened?  _ I thought as I ran over to the twins.  _ Why is there no cave?  _ I’d think about that later, right now my friends could be hurt. 

Mabel was flat on her face, undoubtedly getting a ton of sand in her mouth and braces. Her brother was starting to sit up while fixing his hat, also making sure his journal was still secure in his life jacket that he had changed into earlier. I helped Dipper stand up and then flipped his sister onto her back so that she actually had a chance to breathe. “Are you guys okay?” I yelled over the roar of the falls. Dipper nodded and Mabel spit sand out of her mouth.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Dipper said, comforting his sister. “Where are Stan and Soos?” I turned back to the boat and just past it I could see them both. I was about to run over to them now that I knew that the twins were alright, but the mechanical Gobblewonker slowly stuck it’s head and part of its neck through the rushing water of the waterfall to peer inside. Of course the monster spotted Soos and Stan with little delay. 

I had to get McGucket's attention, I tried to shout but the roar of the falls drowned me out. With no options left, I picked up a rock I noticed was resting near my foot. I let it fly and it soared directly into the monster’s right cheek… if you can even call it that. The impact of the stone not only caught its attention, but made a metal clunking sound that I was just barely able to make out over the waterfall. 

The eyes of the mechanical Gobblewonker locked with mine. I squinted, knowing that McGucket was looking at me through the eyes of his creation. With no hesitation, I picked up another rock that was within my grasp and chucked it at the monster, this time hitting it on the top of its head. This made another loud metal thud and within a split second the Gobblewonker rushed over to in front of me. I held out my arm just like I had done before when we first encountered McGucket and the twins hid behind me once more.

The monster growled at me, but I didn’t flinch. Instead I yelled as loud as I could, “McGucket!” I cupped my free hand around my mouth to project my voice. The monster didn’t move. “You may be a lunatic, but even with that in mind, I know you won’t kill us! Call that thing off!” The mechanical Gobblewonker slowly advanced closer to the twins and I. Eventually, the upper body of the monster made its way behind the falls and I could see a hatch open on the mechanical creature’s back. 

McGucket poked his head out and yelled back at me, “What was that? I never got a chance to instal audio receptors on this thing!” I was about to respond, but in the corner of my eye I saw a stone hurling towards McGucket. The rock made contact with the hillbilly's head, knocking him out. 

“Stan!” I yelled as my gaze flew over to him. “What the heck!”

“What?!” Was all he responded with. Of course he couldn’t hear me. I shook my head and turned to face the twins, Mabel was confused and Dipper was eying me suspiciously. 

“How did you know that old guy was controlling that thing?” Dipper asked with a cocked eyebrow and crossed arms. It may have been a bad idea to do what I just did, but I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t. I did say that I would step in if someone was going to get hurt, didn’t I? “Well for starters, he was the  _ only  _ one who saw the Gobblewonker originally, no one else even knew what he was talking about when he was making a fuss about it earlier. I’ve seen enough movies to know that’s a red flag.” Mabel nodded in understanding and Dipper’s expression had not changed. “Secondly,” I continued, “This thing didn’t come up on the fish sonar thing that Soos has, well,  _ had _ , on his boat.” I gestured over to the boat wreckage. “The other one came up clear as day,” I lied. Honestly, I have no idea if that was true or not. “Thirdly, why would the creature completely slow down when it had us cornered.” Dipper’s expression started to ease and he grew less skeptical. “Lastly, when the rocks I threw at the monster hit its skin, it made an unnatural thud, implying that the creature was metal.” 

“Huh,” Dipper said while uncrossing his arms, “I guess you’re right.” During my explanation that I completely BS-ed my way through, Soos and Stan had reached us. 

“Way to knock the guy out Grunkle Stan!” Mabel cheered once he was within earshot. “You showed him!”

Stan rubbed the back of his neck and smiled at his great niece’s praise. “Well, I can’t have some crazy old guy harass my family, now can I?” Stan said, making Dipper scoff. “Oh come on, I’m part of the family  _ I _ get to harrass you guys all I want!”

“Uh, dudes?” Soos said, butting into the conversation, “Shouldn’t we, like, go make sure that guy is still breathing? 

“Yeah, probably,” Dipper responded. 

Since McGucket wasn’t able to bring his creation to the shore of the sand bank, our group needed to tread through knee deep water to get to the hatch. I made sure that my phone that was still somehow in my pocket didn’t get damaged from the unexpected swim I took earlier. Even though I could barely use it because I didn’t have any internet connection, I don’t want to lose the hundreds of songs I have downloaded on it. After a short time we reached the ‘Gobblewonker’s’ back flipper. Soos and I let Mabel and Dipper use us as makeshift ladders so they could pull themselves on the back of the monster. Next Soos gave me a boost to join the twins and then the same with Stan. Stan and I each grabbed one of Soos’s hands so that we could hoist him up with us. 

By the time Soos had joined us, Dipper and Mabel were already inspecting McGucket's knocked out form. “Well, at least he’s got a pulse,” Dipper said while retracting his hand from McGucket's wrist. 

“Oh good,” Stan said, stepping into the monster’s control room, “I don’t need anything else on my conscience.”  _ That's true.  _ A silence descended over the group. “Are we going to wake him up?” Stan asked. “If he’s delusional when he wakes up, I’m telling him that he owes me money.”

I rolled my eyes at him, “Stan don’t do that.”

“Why not? He asked while spreading his arms out to emphasize his point. “The guy tried to kill us five minutes ago!”

“Huh, racoon wife? Is that you?” McGucket suddenly asked as his eyes flew open. 

Stan cracked a smile. “Yep, definitely delusional,” He concluded and leaned over to my ear. “Tell him to bring me my money!” He whispered and I just ignored him.

McGucket realized that we were in the machine with him. “What kind of hootenanny is this?” he asked, rubbing his forehead. “How’d y'all get in here?”

“The hatch was open so we climbed inside to check on you after some debris hit your head,” I responded.

“Really?” Soos said. “Didn’t Mr. Pines nail him in the head?” The four of us turned and eyed Soos while McGucket continued to rub his head. “I guess not, must’ve been seeing things, heh, heh...” Soos chuckled nervously at our glares. 

After a moment of silence, I spoke up. “Did you make this thing?” I asked, gesturing around us knowing the answer.

McGucket quickly stood up. “Yes sir, I did!” He replied.

Dipper eyes went wide, “Wha-- YOU made this!?”  _ Wasn’t that already obvious?  _

Mabel put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Yes Dipper, he’s the one that made this mighty contraption!” Mabel said in a dramatic tone. “Now, go ahead and overthink _ everything _ about this while we get some answers.”

“I will,” was all he responded with.

“Atta boy!” Mabel said while patting her brother’s back. “So, mysterious hillbilly genius, why’d ya make this?” Mabel asked, her attention now back to McGucket.

McGucket looked at us with embarrassment, “I-I, uh, I just wanted attention…”  _ Poor guy. Sure making a death machine is a stretch to get some attention, but he’s been alone for so long.  _

“I still don’t understand,” Dipper said to himself, still lost in his thoughts.

McGucket thought that he was talking to him, “Well, first I just-”

“No,” I cut him off, “ _ Why  _ did you make this?” I said, restating the question to a broken minded individual.  _ Patience is gonna be the key on this one.  _

“Well, when you get to be an old fella like me,” McGucket started, taking off his hat, “Nobody pays any attention to you anymore. My own son hasn’t visited me in months.” He then placed a hand under his chin. “Or was it years? Oh scrapgummity, I can’t remember....”

“So, did you ever talk to- Wait, do you hear that?” I asked. It sounded like groaning metal.

“Huh, yeah I think I do hear som-” Soos was cut off as the ‘Gobblewonker’ got pulled out of the waterfall and back into the lake. 

Dipper was snapped back to his senses now and he pointed to the still open hatch, “Quick close the door!” McGucket ran over to the hatch on all fours and then hopped up to grab the door to pull it back in place before we submerged. 

There were multiple monitors and screens displaying live feed of the ‘Gobblewonker’s’ surroundings and on one of them it showed a familiar green sea monster. “The real Goblewonker is back! Looks like he’s not scared of this thing anymore!” 

The whole machine shook violently as the Gobblewonker rammed into its fake counterpart. “We’re safe in here right?” Stan asked, a little panicked. “What’s this thing made of?”

“It’s got a steel alloy with mattress springs supporting the neck and air jugs in the belly for floatation,” McGucket explained. 

“He’s kidding… right?” Stan asked and McGucket did not give an answer.

“Oh, dude, he’s not kidding,” Soos replied.

We were now completely under water, trapped in a confined control room of a mighty mechanical beast. McGucket took a seat in front of his computers that must be the way that he controls this thing. I walked up behind him and placed a hand on the chair that he was sitting in. “Can you get us out of here?” I asked, watching the Gobblewonker on the live feed. It looked like, no, it  _ was  _ coming in for another attack. 

“I have no idea!” Was all McGucket responded with as he pulled a lever next to one of the screens. 

“We are so dead.” Stan said bluntly.

The ‘Gobblewonker’ instantly straightened out and turned around making everyone except McGucket lose their balance. The great machine was now staring down the real monster, making it slow down its charge in anticipation of an attack. But we didn’t move. The Gobblewonker noticed this and opened its mouth as it gained speed, aiming its sharp teeth at the ‘Gobblewonker’s’ neck. “Hang on, fellers!” McGucket yelled, pressing down hard on a pedal with his bandaged foot. This action made us dive down just before the Gobblewonker made contact with the robot’s metal alloy. Once we were clear, McGucket somehow pulled a stick shift with his long white beard, making us level out once more and propelled his creation forward. The video feed showed the Gobblewonker quickly realize that we had evaded its jaws and swiftly turned to chase the ‘Gobblewonker.’

“What are we going to do?” Dipper asked, gripping his hat tightly. “Diving to deeper water is only going to be a temporary solution!” He was right, the monster would eventually catch up with us. 

Mabel’s eyes lit up. “What if we fought it with this thing?”She asked while gesturing to the robot we were trapped in. 

“Mabel, that’s a  _ terrible  _ idea!” Dipper responded. 

She completely disregarded what her brother just said. “Monster Fight! Monster Fight! Monster Fight!” She chanted while pumping her fists into the air. 

“Now’s not the time Mabel.” I said blatantly, though not completely disregarding her solution. We could try and fight it off, but I don’t know anything about the real Gobblewonker. I have no idea of its weaknesses, or even if it has any!  _ This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, this wasn’t how this is supposed to go at all! We were never supposed to encounter the real Gobblewonker, is my presence making  _ **_that_ ** _ big of a change on the story?  _

“Why is this thing so angry at us!” Stan cried, noticing that the Gobblewonker was rapidly closing its distance. In the short time that we have been, well, swimming from the monster, we had managed to make our way back to the main part of the lake. 

“Dude, this thing is not giving up.” Soos commented, making Stan roll his eyes at his employee. Soos was right though, the Gobblewonker was not showing any signs of stopping. 

With a sigh I turned my head from the screen to McGucket who, surprisingly, was serious and concentrated with keeping distance from the monster. “McGucket, although I hate to say it, I think we are going to have to fight this thing. Will this copy be able to hold up against the real thing?” I asked reluctantly.

“Only one way to find out!” He responded in a crazy tone while grabbing the clutch with his beard, making my eyes widen.

“Wait!” I yelled. “There are people just fishing and minding their own business on the surface.” I heard stan mutter something under his breath about how those people minding their own business could have been us, but I ignored him. “Just get us back to Scuttlebutt island so no one gets hurt.” I noticed McGucket look upset at my request.

“Oh, all right.” He responded, a little upset that I denied the chaos. 

Once we reached the island McGucket pulled the clutch once more, making us do a one-hundred eighty degree turn to face the Gobblewonker. The crazy old hillbilly then pressed a button and his creation let out a roar that stopped the monster in its tracks. For a moment both beasts made no motion, staring each other in the eyes, almost daring the other to make a move. 

“CHARGE!” Mabel yelled, and McGucket did just that. He opened the monster’s mouth and sped towards the large, green flippered adversary. The Gobblewonker charged as well and once the monster was within reach, McGucket made an attempt to bite the creature's scaly neck. However, in a surprising move, the Gobblewonker dodged the attack by diving just before it got striked. The monster, now under us, hit the belly of the robot with its powerful tail, making all of us inside the victim fall on our faces. All except McGucket, who was still graced by having a chair to sit in. Instead of following up the tail slap with another attack like I had expected it to, the Gobblewonker went right over to where the land of the island met the lake floor and awaited our next move. 

Dipper noticed this as well. “Why didn't it follow up?” He asked as McGucket turned to face the Gobblewonker. The monster was holding a defensive position in the water that it now occupied, and it awaited our next move.  _ This thing is smarter than it looks _ . Before McGucket moved us again, I saw the monster quickly move its head to a large group of rocks at the base of the island and then quickly back to us as we approached. 

Instead of going for the neck, this time the robot went for a ram at the Goblewonker’s body. The lake monster was unable to dodge the attack this time and was sent forcefully out to deeper water. Now that the monster was clear of the area that it appeared to be defending, I was able to get a quick uninterrupted look at our surroundings. It looked like a cave entrance that was cut off by a landslide of rocks. I was able to see a small gap in the rocks that was too small for the Gobblewonker but big enough for a human to pass through. 

We suddenly moved again to avoid the most aggressive and reckless attack from the Gobblewonker. It was weird, just a moment ago the monster was being careful and picking its shots wisely, but now that we were next to this potential cave entrance it was lashing out. It was clear that the Gobblewonker did not want us there. McGucket used the creature’s recklessness to his advantage, the monster had tried attacking with so much force that it flew right past us and was left wide open. With the push of a button, McGucket slapped the Gobblewonker with his creation’s metal tail, sending it to the sandy lake floor.

“McGucket, bring us back out to the open water.” I requested, realizing that we had but a moment before the Gobblwonker would bounce back. McGucket complied quickly to my surprise and didn’t think anything of it. 

“What for, dude?” Soos asked.

“I wanna test something.” I responded as the monster swam to the closed off cave entrance. “Wait for it to make the first move this time.” We waited a full ten seconds, which may not seem like a lot, but in this tense situation, it felt much longer. And during this time, the Gobblewonker made no effort to push forward, resuming its defensive position that it had before. “Roar to try and provoke it.” McGucket compiled once more and his creation let out another mighty roar. The Gobblewonker echoed its counterpart, but still made now attempts to move forward. 

“Okay, now do what you did before and get this guy out in the open water.” I inquired. We charged forward once more, going for another pummel. The Gobblewonker tried to dodge again, but its body was too big of a target and we made contact. “Now watch how aggressive it gets.” I stated, making Stan scoff as the monster made another reckless attempt to bite us. “Pull back.” I ordered. McGucket did what he was told and we were back to open water. 

“Kid, of course the thing is going to get aggressive, we just headbutted it!” Stan exclaimed with outstretched arms. 

“Then why isn’t it attacking now then?” I asked while pointing at the monster on a computer screen. “Every time we’ve gotten to the position the Gobblewonker is in right now, it gets super aggressive and tries to desperately remove us from the area. But if we’re not-”

“Then it waits for us to attack first.” Dipper finished. “It’s being super cautious with its moves when it has that area secured.” He turned to me. “Do you think it's actually defending something?” Dipper asked. 

“I believe so.” I responded. “I caught a glimpse of what looked like a cave, but it's entrance was, well, caved-in.”

“Is there something in there that it wants?” Mabel asked, making me shrug.

“I’m not sure, but there was a gap that one of us could probably swim through to get inside and find out.” I stated and then turned to McGucket. “Do you have any scuba equipment in case of emergencies?” He opened a drawer and inside was a small rebreather and a pair of goggles with a missing eyepiece for the left eye. “That’ll do… I guess.”

Hold on a second there, kid,” Stan started, “You’re not seriously thinking about going out there, are you?” He glanced at the two objects in the drawer and noticed the state of disrepair they were in. I shrugged when he looked back at me. “You’re kidding. That thing will tear you to shreds if you go anywhere near it!” 

  
  
“Well I’m still going to consider it.” I replied, taking the equipment out of the drawer. “There’s gotta be a reason why the Gobblewonker wants to protect that area so badly.”

“If it loves that cave so much then why doesn’t it just go inside and leave us alone?” Stan asked and Dipper shook his head.

“He can’t, Grunkle Stan. The cave is blocked, remember?” Dipper then put a hand on his chin and dove into deep thought.

Mabel spoke up, “Matt’s right though. Why would that ugly momma wanna protect that cave so bad?” 

After she said that, the answer clicked in my head, and I could tell that Dipper was thinking the same thing. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Matt, you don’t think that he is a she, do you?” Dipper asked. It made sense, the Gobblewonker could be trying to protect its young.

“It's definitely a possibility.” I nodded in confirmation. “Maybe when the entrance was cut off the monster couldn’t reach its offspring and set it in a state of panic.” 

“Well, why don’t the big critter just knock all them there rocks away?” McGucket asked.

“It might think that it will hurt its children if it tries that.” Dipper responded.

Stan rolled his eyes at his nephew’s hypothesis. “It’s just a stupid Lochness Monster wannabe, it can’t be that smart.” Stan stated with crossed arms. 

“Uh, I dunno, dude,” Soos responded, “I think that story checks out.”

“Yeah, Grunkle Stan! Why you bein’ so Grunkly about this?” Mabel asked, approaching her Grunkle. I knew the answer, it's just a matter if he would say it or not. 

Stan looked at me and then to everyone else. They were now staring intently at him, waiting for an answer. “Look when I woke up today, I thought it would be a fun idea to go fishing and spend some time with my family.”  _ Oh boy.  _ “But, noooo. Instead, I get dragged into some insane monster hunt for a photo contest and I want nothing to do with it!” Stan yelled. 

“But what about the grand prize?” Dipper asked.

“I don’t care about that anymore!” Stan yelled back, surprising everyone in the control room. “We’ve almost died like three times so far! It’s not worth it!” 

“Actually, dude, I’m pretty sure it was four.” I elbowed Soos to shut him up. “Heh heh, sorry dude.” 

Stan rolled his eyes. “You’ve gotta draw the line somewhere, we’ve been ignoring that fact for a while now. And now, I say it’s time!” He yelled.

I put a hand on the old man’s shoulder. “I know, Stan, but that monster might need our help.” I said. He brushed my hand away and walked over to a corner in the room. “You do realize that the Gobblewonker is just trying to do the same thing that you are doing, right?” Everyone else was confused by my statement, but I knew Stan understood what I meant. He gave a huff, crossed his arms and looked away.  _ Stan is just trying to protect his kids, just like the Gobblewonker.  _

Now that Stan was looking away, I turned to Dipper, took out my phone and handed it to him. “Hold onto this for me will ya?” He took the device from my hand and I set the goggles on my face.  _ I bet I look ridiculous.  _ My thought was confirmed when I heard Mabel giggle but I didn’t say anything to her and held the rebreather close to my mouth. I turned to McGucket who was watching the live feed of the Gobblewonker intently, making sure that it didn’t attack. It had hardly moved, just like I had suspected. With a deep breath that caught McGucket's attention I began to voice a plan. “Okay, I’m going to go out there, swim into that cave once the coast is clear and see what I can do about that blockage. In the meantime, you guys are going to buy me time. Every spare second you get, try and help me with the rocks.”

“How would we do that?” Dipper asked, making me face him once more. “I mean, we could probably cover you, but how can we help with the debris at the same time?” His sister was moving towards the back of the room as she noticed something that caught her eye. “It’s not like we have another long appendage that we could control.”

“Hey, country bumpkin!” Mabel suddenly called to McGucket.  _ Country Bumpkin?  _ “What are these controls for?” She was gesturing to a powered down console with its own set of buttons and levers. I raised an eyebrow out of curiosity as I hadn't noticed it before.

McGucket glanced over to Mabel, who was now closely inspecting the buttons. “Well, I designed this lake critter to catch my son’s fancy. So naturally, I implemented a control system for the robot’s tail.” He then looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “We would have brought so much destruction together.” McGucket mused. “Father and son, striking fear into the hearts of children and grandmas!” 

Mabel looked at me quickly and I just shrugged. “Riiiiight…” She responded worriedly. A split second later her tone was back to its cheery self. “Anyway, does it still work?”

“It might be a little rusty, but it should work.” The crazy hillbilly replied. 

Mabel grabbed a lever in each hand. “Okay good! You watch our front and I’ll make sure Matt is all good back here at the rear.” She covered her mouth to suppress a giggle. “Heh, heh, rear.” I couldn’t help but smirk and roll my eyes at that statement.

“Nice thinking, Mabel!” Dipper praised, completely ignoring his sister’s immaturity. 

“Okay Dipstick, I’m going to control the tail with my epic and awesome art craftsmanship hands while you use your big nerd brain to tell me which rocks I should move.” Mabel stated as McGucket powered on her console. I must say, I am impressed with her logic. 

“What about me, Soos!” The manchild exclaimed pointing to himself. 

“You stay here and keep Stan company.” I answered, earning a nod from the handyman and Stan himself just scowled. “I probably should have asked this earlier, but does this thing have an escape hatch that I could open that won’t flood the entire vessel?” Stan scoffed and muttered something. I think it was something about being so clever that I was an idiot.  _ I’m probably reminding him of his brother right about now.  _ I felt terrible about this and I looked at Stan and he didn’t bother to look back. His twin brother had taken this path once, one of supernatural occurrences and monsters and it got him lost between dimensions. This old man has seen first hand how dangerous all this crazy stuff can be, and I know that he doesn’t want anyone he cares about to get hurt. “I’ll be careful, Stan. I promise.”

“You’d better.” Was all he replied with, not even giving so much as a glance in my direction.  _ Huh, wow, does Stan actually care about me?  _ He hasn’t even known me for a full week yet, but I guess I really was growing on him. 

“We all good, McGucket?” I asked and he gave me a quick nod.

“I just double checked if there is an exit for emergencies, and I am happy to report that we have one!” I gave a laugh at the old man’s state of mind, which thinking back on it, was kind of mean but I pushed those thoughts aside. 

“Alright,” I started, “Bring us in.” McGucket gave another nod and pushed down on a foot pedal, propelling us forward. Instead of trying to ram the Gobblewonker like he had done before, McGucket went all out and went for a bite at the monster’s neck. The Lake mo nster had not expected this, it probably thought that we were going for another ram like I did. The Gobblewonker tried last second to maneuver out of the way, but it was too late and now the creature was trapped in the jaws of the mechanical monster. 

McGucket slowly backed up his creation so that we were just in front of the collapsed cave entrance. “Here’s your chance, kiddo!” McGucket pressed a button and a tile on the floor opened up to reveal the dark blue depths of the lake. I took a deep breath and kicked off my shoes and socks, making sure that I had a waterproof disposable camera in one of my pockets and a flashlight that McGucket had given to me in the other. The control room flashed red a couple of times and my eyes flew over to a live feed monitor and it showed the Gobblewonker biting its counterpart back. “I’ve got her for now, but this hootenanny of a machine won’t hold her back forever!” I nodded and jumped into the water.

I was shocked at how cold it was, the sun’s radiant heat was unable to reach the depths of the water. I closed my exposed eye so my vision wouldn’t be horribly disoriented between blurry and clear. I began to swim towards the cave, but the mechanical tail that was controlled by Mabel almost hit me square in the face making me stop abruptly.  _ Maybe letting a hyperactive glitter monster we call a child have control of the massive robot tail wasn’t the best idea.  _

I pressed onward after the little incident and as soon as I reached the rocks at the cave entrance, McGucket squirmed his way out of the Gobllewonkers’ jaws. Once they were free, Mabel hit the monster in the belly stunning it for a moment and she then waved to me with the tail. I couldn’t help but wave back. Mabel quickly found herself occupied once more as the Gobblewonker charged in for another attack. I needed to be out of the way so they could actually help me move some of these rocks. The hole that I had spotted was bigger than I thought, allowing me to go through with no problem. 

The cave was extremely dark with the only the faintest of light passing through the hole in the rocks. I pulled the flashlight out of my pocket and flicked it on, good thing McGucket had a waterproof one lying around. Shining the light all around my surroundings, I found nothing, but I did discover a pocket of air at the top of the cave. Deciding that it would be wise to conserve my limited oxygen, I swam up to it and my jaw dropped at what I saw after I looked around. This obviously made me drop the rebreather that was previously clenched in my mouth, I panicked but I got a hold of it again. My eyes drifted back to what was laying on one of the large flat rocks that was poking out of the water, there were three Gobblewonkers huddled together. 

Based on the size of their mother, I expected them to be at the very least the size of two or three Soos’ but these were barely the size of Dipper or Mabel, their heads probably would make it just past my belly button..  _ These are definitely babies, maybe even newborns. No wonder Momawonker got so aggressive.  _ I swam over to the rock they were laying on and started to climb up on top of it. I set the flashlight down so that it was balanced and pointing straight up, illuminating a large portion of this underwater cave and put the rebreather in my pocket. As soon as I took a step closer to them, two of the three’s heads instantly looked up at me. They were green and looked like little seals, just with tails and a long skinny neck and the head of a dinosaur on top of it, so not seals at all. 

The two looking at me started to growl, making me flinch and have to push my sopping wet hair out of my face. Despite showing signs of hostility, neither of them moved towards me, they weren't the most agile on land after all. I raised my hands and stepped forward once more so that maybe I can try and catch a glimpse of the third one that hasn’t moved at all yet. As I got closer, the aggravated pair waddled over to me with their little flippers, which would have been adorable if they weren’t ready to bite my hand off. They were slow on land, just like I suspected, and I easily avoided and got past them. I looked at the third one and let out a small gasp. Its entire little tail was trapped under a decently sized rock and as I got closer to it, the baby let out a cry. My face contorted in fear and I prayed that its mother didn’t hear it, but despite my hopes, I heard a faint roar. 

“Hey, hey, its okay.” I said calmly to the now distressed babywonker. I looked away from it and noticed its brethren were now trying to come to its aid and tried biting at my ankles. I quickly stepped back and spread out my arms to make myself look as big a s possible, which slightly intimidated them. “C’mon guys, can’t you see I’m trying to help?” I quickly walked over to the edge of the rock that we were all located on and waited for one of them to lunge at me. Fortunately, these little guys are just babies, and all babies are dumb. One of them tried to bite me and I side stepped out of the way and it fell right into the water behind me, making the other one stop its advance. I held eye contact with it while I walked past it, it was growling like a dog the entire time, but made no attempt to attack out of fear of me striking back. 

I took a knee next to the trapped babywonker and set a hand on its exposed back and started to stroke it. I would try and move the rock right now, but this thing might squirm too much and get even more hurt than it already was. At first, my touch was unwelcome and the little monster tried biting at my hand, but eventually it started to calm down and realized that I wasn’t going to hurt it. The youngling layed its head calmly on the rock. Now that it wasn’t trying to bite my hand every few seconds, I was able to notice how soft and bluber-y its skin was due to a lack of scales. Its breathing rate became steady and I could feel the little guy’s heartbeat pulsate through his body. 

I looked over when I heard a little plop, the other baby Goblewonker had managed to get back on the rock after its unexpected swim. Both siblings noticed how calm their trapped sibling was under my touch and started to calm down as well. Once I was fairly sure I had gained all three’s trust, I stood up. This, in turn, made the trapped Gobblewonker raise its head and look at me. “Let’s get you out of there, huh?” I said, giving the baby one last reassuring stroke. The rock trapping the creature must weigh at least one hundred and sixty pounds based on its size. I placed both hands on its rough surface and began to push with my legs and it started to slowly move. I took a deep breath and began pushing again and this time I wasn’t alone. The two free babywonkers tried to help by pushing the rock with me using their rounded, fatty shoulders. While they weren’t helping much it was a very sweet thing to see, it almost made my grip slip when I saw them helping me because I thought they were trying to go another round at my ankles. With one final grunt, I pushed the dense rock off of the monster’s tail and into the water with a big splash. I almost fell in after the rock, but I caught myself on my hands just in time. 

By the time I stood up, the three siblings were huddled together in a makeshift hug. I walked towards one of the rock’s edges and picked up the flashlight I had set on the ground. When I turned around the now free baby gobblewonker was looking up at me, I could see that the monster’s tail had a big bruise on it, but somehow the little guy didn’t seem to mind. “You okay?” I asked and it gave a little squeal in response. “Alright then, let’s get out of here.”

I placed the rebreather back into my mouth and jumped into the water with the flashlight, but only after I took a selfie with the babywonkers. My heart was warmed to see the three siblings back together, but now it is ice cold again after jumping into the water. 

I was able to see a significant amount of light coming through the cave entrance, as most of the rocks were clear courtesy of Mabel. Me and the three little guys swam out of the cave once I knew that McGucket had the area secure. I could see the hatch on the bottom open up for me but a loud roar tore my focus from it. The still very aggressive Gobblewonker saw its young and made a mad charge forward. McGucket tried to hold his own against the attack, but the monster sent my friends into the rock wall next to the cave, which just so happened to be where I was. My eyes grew wide as the mechanical Gobblewonker came hurtling towards me. I tried to swim out of the way but the tail hit me directly, making the rebreather fall out of my mouth. 

My head started to pound, every cell in my body was screaming for oxygen. I needed to take a breath, and I did. For some reason it didn’t hurt like I thought it would, it was almost peaceful actually. I began to fall. I fell further and further into the darkness until it threatened to swallow me whole. The last thing I saw was the babywonker that I saved trying to save me.

The first thing I felt was weight, not weight on my chest trying to spring my lungs back to life, but weight in my lap. I opened my eyes to the bright sun, and I felt warm. I felt calm as well until I started coughing up the water and gunk that was in my lungs a few seconds after regaining consciousness. Slowly sitting up, I saw what the weight on my lap was. It was the babywonker. I smiled at it, the little guy looked comfortable. 

“Looks like you saved me, now we’re even,” I said with a cough making the babywonker look at me. I could have sworn that it shook its head at me as the sun was suddenly blocked out by a large form. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the new lighting, but I wish they hadn’t. Looking down at me was the Gobblewonker. I jumped back and scraped my hand on the rough surface I was laying on, but that hardly mattered right now. I knew any second this thing was going to open its giant maw and I’d be dead. I shut my eyes tightly in anticipation, but nothing happened.

I slowly opened them, to see that the big guy, well actually big girl, hadn’t moved at all. It was just looking at me and all I could do was look back. I broke eye contact and brought my hands down my face, noticing that my goggles weren’t there anymore, and made sure that I wasn’t going insane. I somehow wasn’t. 

After I made eye contact with the Gobblewonker again, it slowly brought its head closer to me, prompting me to scoot as far away as I could. I looked over my shoulder once I ran out of room and saw the water and a flipper. I was on the Gobblewonker’s back. “ _ You _ saved me?” The monster answered me by bringing its head a foot in front of mine. Then it closed the distance, lightly nudging me with its head like a dog. “Thanks,” Was all I could manage to get out. I guess this was just a misunderstood creature, it seemed to have a big heart and you can call me crazy, but I think the Gobblewonker was thanking me right now as well. I went into the cave and saved its young, whether it knew that or not I’m not sure, but I would like to think that. Why else would she save me?

Regardless, this was incredible. I began to lightly stroke its face with my hand as it gave a low hum in response. The moment didn’t last long as I heard a splash come from the water making the Gobblewonker pull away and whip its head in the noise’s direction. I could see the mechanical Gobblewonker racing towards us. I stood up and began to stroke the beast’s lower neck, hoping that the action would calm it. Making sure that I was in line of sight of McGucket, I waved with my free hand showing that I was unharmed. The babywonker nuzzled itself next to my leg and I patted its head. “Man, I really need to give you a name,” I said under my breath.

I could feel the surprise coming from everyone inside the robot as they slowed their speed, making me smile. The Gobblewonker began to make a low growl as they got closer. “It’s okay,” I said, speeding up my strokes on its neck. “They’re friends.” The monster tilted its head in my direction and seemed to calm down. However, she did not bring her guard down, she was still ready to strike if she saw it fit. 

This was a very tense situation. A cold war pact was unanimously formed between the two behemoths, one that could easily be shattered by a certain trigger happy hillbilly, but I trusted him not to do anything dumb. The mechanical Gobblewonker came to a halt and the top hatch sprung open revealing Soos.

“Dude! Oh my gosh, dude, are you all good?” He asked and I gave a nod in reply, setting an awkward silence over the both of us. “So,” Soos said after a couple seconds, looking at the monster. “Who’s your friend?” I started to laugh at the question as Soos was pulled back down into the control room. Dipper and Mabel popped their heads into the air.

“How’s it goin’ you two?” I asked, now leaning on the Gobblewonker’s neck. 

“Matt, that is so cool!” Dipper yelled maybe a bit too loud. “How did you tame them?” Mabel was just relieved to see that I was okay. 

I let out a scoff at Dipper’s question. “I did no such thing,” I answered, patting the monster’s neck. “Turns out this girl here is not a ‘stupid Lochness Monster wannabe.’” 

Dipper let out a laugh and turned his head back down to the cockpit. “Ha! I told you Grunkle Stan!” Dipper exclaimed.

“Who’s that little guy?” Mabel asked, pointing to the baby resting against my leg. 

“Oh, his name is um,”  _ Way to put me on the spot Mabel!  _ “His name is Greg,” I replied.

“Meh, I think he looks like more of a Bartholomew.”

“No way, Mabel.” I gave a small laugh and squatted down next to Greg. “I guess this is goodbye,” I said while giving him a pat on the head, prompting him to let out a small squeak. “Yeah, I’ll miss you too.” I stood up and hopped over to the mechanical Gobblewonker and jumped down the hatch, but not before I waved goodbye to the two monsters. 

“Bye Mommawonker, bye Gregory!” Mabel called with an extravagant wave. “I guess that kind of has a ring to it.” I gave her a smirk in ruffled her hair, making her giggle. 

I closed the hatch and we submerged down into the water. “Well that was an unexpected adventure, huh dudes?” Soos asked.

“Sure was,” I responded.  _ He has no idea.  _ I glanced over to Stan who was making his way over to me. “I’m sorry about all this, Stan,” I said once he reached me. “We can go fishing tomorrow if you want.”

Stan waved a hand through the air. “Ah, don’t worry about it, kid. I guess I had a good time today, all things considered.” I gave him a small smile. “Only time I get a rush like that is when I run from the cops!” I gave a laugh and he smiled.

“Well now at least you can’t deny the supernatural exists, Grunkle Stan,” Dipper said once my laughter subsided.  _ Way to kill the mood, Dipstick.  _

“Kid I’ve always known about it,” Stan replied with a scoff. He placed a hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry about lying to you about it, but I only did it because I didn’t want you to get hurt. The one thing that I know about all this weirdness is that it's dangerous. I don’t want my family at risk.” Way to go Stan, I didn’t think he had it in him. 

Dipper was a little shocked at this revelation at first, but he moved on from it pretty quick. “It’s okay, Grunkle Stan. I guess I can see where you’re coming from.”

“Well I don’t!” Mabel exclaimed with a mischievous smile. “My own grunkle lied to me, I think he needs to give me something in return.”

Stan rolled his eyes with a smile and got down on one knee. “Would a hug be enough?” He asked with outstretched arms. The twins smiled and ran up to him and embraced him. I was smiling too until I caught a glance at McGucket. His face was slightly upset, undoubtedly thinking about his own family while watching the Pines interact.

A few minutes later we were back on the shore after a stealthy approach. We decided, McGucket included, that exposing either of the Gobblewonkers was a bad idea. We made our way back to Stan’s car and Dipper let out a sigh. “It's a shame we never got any pictures for the contest,” Dipper said, plopping himself in the backseat. Stan put the keys in the ignition and wordlessly handed his nephew one of the disposable cameras and a big grin found its way onto Dipper’s face. 

“Hamster Ball!” Mabel exclaimed while punching the air.

The ride back to the Shack was one of comfortable silence, but as we cut through town something caught my eye. “Hey Stan, can you let me out here?” I asked.

“Sure, kid,” He replied. “Do you need us to come along?”

I shook my head as I exited the car. “Nah, I just need to go and check on something. Can you come back for me in an hour?” Stan nodded and I closed the door. I gave a small wave as they drove off. Once they were gone I turned and walked into the Gravity Falls Dump and spotted McGucket. 

“Hello, McGucket,” I said, making him quickly turn and face me. 

“Oh hello visitor! Matt, was it?” The old man asked and I nodded. “What brings a young feller like yourself here?” 

“Can I come inside?” I asked, which seemed to surprise him. He gave a quick nod and led me into his home. 

“I-I’m sorry if this place is kind of messy, I usually don’t get visitors.”

“It's quite alright, Fiddleford. I’ve just come to give you some company,” I responded. “I didn’t know that your son doesn’t talk to you,” I lied. “I know I’m not a part of your family, but I don’t like the thought of you being all alone.” McGucket gave me a warm smile and I could tell that I was the first person that he could call a friend in a long time. 

  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
